Aborted Landing on TACA: SAL-PTY

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I already had my boarding pass but wanted to check on an upgrade to business class before proceeding to the gate. The check-in lobby at SAL is housed in a large single terminal with TACA occupying about half the space. Judging by the deserted counters on the right side of the terminal, TACA seemed to be the only airline operating that evening.

 

 

 

 

It never hurts to ask for an upgrade. After all, the worst you can be told is “no.” There were long lines in the economy section, but I was waved over to a vacant business class check-in desk. My tactic is to ask about the cost of an upgrade in hopes of getting one for free. Tonight, I was told by a very friendly agent that there were no seats in business class available, but she did offer move to move me to a bulkhead or exit row seat. Since this was a EMB-190, I knew there would be a bulkhead cutout so I chose the bulkhead.

 

After my adventure in San Salvador I was ready for dinner and still had an hour before my flight. When I arrived earlier in the day I noticed a couple smoke-filled bars in the terminal, but no restaurants. Upstairs before security screening I found a fried chicken fast food restaurant and a cafeteria. After examining the cafeteria menu, I sat down for a quick dinner of eggs and black beans. While the black beans were good, the eggs had a very odd taste (could be what real eggs that are not treated with hormones taste like!), but I shoveled them down anyway.

 

 

Security only took a moment to clear and I reached the gate area five minutes prior to scheduled boarding, just in time to catch an announcement about a delay. Another hour dragged by before we finally boarded the flight the Panama City.

 

 

 

After we reached cruising altitude, a small meal was served consisting of a hot sandwich filled with cheese, ham, onions, and peppers along with a side of chopped carrots and a packaged cookie. The sandwich was very good: much better than UA’s new sandwiches, and I was quite pleased to be served anything at all.

 

 

 

 

The AVOD was complimentary (as were the headsets) and featured about a dozen movies as well as short-subject programming, music, and games. I began watching State of Play as soon as the system became available after takeoff and got through all but the last 15 minutes. Sadly, I still haven’t been able to complete it. If not for a system glitch early in the flight, I would have been able to finish it.

 

 

Here’s where the fun starts. On final approach, just moments before we would have hit the ground, the pilot suddenly gunned the engines and we shot back up in the air. Now I had quite of bit of practice with aborted landing during my Air Force flight training, but this was a first for me on a commercial flight. Gasps could be heard throughout the cabin as we quickly climbed back up to about 2,000 feet and entered a holding pattern. 20 minutes later we were still circling the airport with no announcement from the cabin crew or flight deck about what was going on. Five minutes later we gradually descended into PTY and landed without incident. The usual formalities of giving local time and thanking passengers for flying TACA occurred, but no explanation of what happened.

 

On my way off of the plane, I asked one of the FA’s what had happened and she said she did not know. It was now after midnight so I did not ask around.

 

I thought about going into the city to a 24-hour youth hostel that I will write about in the next section of the trip report, but opted to crash at the airport overnight. The secure side was quiet and the couches looked comfortable. I was awakened once during the night by a security guard demanding to see my passport, but I quickly feel asleep again and enjoyed a good night’s rest.