On a recent trip to Chicago with GT’s publisher, Fran Gallagher, to a cocktail reception hosted by The Tourist Office of Spain to bid adieu to Julio A. Lopez, Director of the Chicago office, we barely got out of Dodge.

 After our original flight out of O’Hare was cancelled due to severe summer weather in the Northeast, specifically our destination airport, Newark Liberty, the only available seats that evening out of Chicago on our airline were out of Midway. We got to Midway with loads of time to spare, so we had something to eat and headed to the gate where we learned that our flight was delayed an hour because of continued severe weather. It had now started to rain in Chicago. We eventually boarded and rolled back from the gate and took our place in line for takeoff only to be told we would be delayed…..no surprise there. By now, the rain was a full blown thunderstorm with horizontal rain and lightning that put all fireworks displays to shame. We sat on the tarmac for more than two hours while the storm outside was abating. Just as we were thinking we would definitely get out of Chicago the pilot came on air to say they had to cancel the flight. It was not the weather, but rather the rule that regulates the number of hours the flight crews can work within a 14 hour period. It seems our co-pilot’s time was running short when we boarded and then with the 3+ hours delay, he would have been past his time limit when we landed in Newark.

What I would like to know from the airlines is why they would put a member of the flight crew on a flight at the end of the day in the summer, when violent thunder storms tend to occur, if they know he/she is close to his/her time limit. Many flights were canceled the day we flew because of the weather, why couldn’t the airline anticipate the very real possibility that our flight would be delayed and draft a crew member from one of the canceled flights to replace our guy who was near his sell-by date.

I am sure the airlines have a valid reason, it just seems to baffle me.

 -Dick Evans, Vice President