Commercial passengers spend night at Yokota
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YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — Busloads of weary travelers made their way to the base community center after the massive earthquake in Japan forced 11 commercial aircraft to land here Friday afternoon, after being diverted from the country’s biggest airport.
Two planes and their 537 passengers could not fly out of Yokota and had to stay on base overnight.
After flying in circles for a half-hour, Phil Gross, a passenger on board Delta 295 flying out of Seattle and destined for China knew something was wrong.
“The passengers started watching the screen tracking the plane going in circles and everybody wondered what was going on,” Gross said.
“Things flash through your mind,” Gross said. “Is there a crack in the runway?” Gross wondered about the condition of the buildings below and wondered if they were still standing. “You just didn’t know.”
Although there wasn’t much news at first, Gross said things were pretty calm up in the air.
“There wasn’t any panic,” Gross said, noting that everyone accepted at a certain point that they wouldn’t be making their connecting flight to Shanghai.
“Our pilot really kept people apprised well,” said Gross “It would have been total confusion without that.”
okubog@pstripes.osd.mil
