Return from China delayed

RALEIGH -- More than 100Raleigh business leaders and politicians were forced to sit on an airplane for 13 hours at China's Beijing Airport on Sunday after a man-made snowstorm grounded their flight.

The group was returning from a nine-day trip organized by the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce to explore business opportunities and visit sites such as the Great Wall of China.

"There's been a good deal of interest in China as a major economic power," Harvey Schmitt, the chamber's chief operating officer, said Wednesday. "It was an opportunity for business people to intersect, but it was more about learning about China."

Near the trip's end, the group flew from Shanghai early Sunday morning into Beijing to catch a flight to JFK Airport in New York. East China had been unseasonably warm, with temperatures in the 70s, but the group saw snow on the ground as it landed in Beijing.

The snowstorm was not happenstance. Beijing has been suffering from a drought, and the Chinese government had iodized the clouds to make them more prone to precipitation, Schmitt said.

But the government did not count on a cold front with temperatures dipping below 30degrees, turning heavy rain into heavy snow. The airport looked more like winter inBuffalo or Chicago than late fall in China, Schmitt said.

Raleigh City Council member Nancy McFarlane said the group was hustled down icy steps off the plane and into the airport terminal. Early in the afternoon, it boarded an Air China plane for JFK and waited. And waited.

"We were sitting and sitting and sitting, but no one would tell us anything," McFarlane said. "They started serving us food. That's when we knew we were in trouble."

For the next 13 hours,Raleigh City Council member Mary Ann Baldwin watched three movies, while others - about 300 passengers in all - played Scrabble and cards, got up to stretch, surfed the Internet with their laptops or listened to their iPods.

Baldwin could barely remember the movies.

"I have tried to block it from my memory. It was so painful," she said. "I liken it to childbirth. You try to remember the good things and forget about the bad."

Baldwin eventually led a group in yoga exercises to help relax stiffened limbs and muscles.

The Air China flight did not lift off until after midnight and arrived in New York 13 hours later.

Baldwin rebooked her connecting flight with Delta and flew out of JFK on Monday at 6 a.m. There were about 15 others on board from theChina trip. At one point, the pilot announced that strong winds in Raleigh might divert the plane to Charlotte.

"I think everyone wanted to let out a primal scream," she said.

Latest Comment View all comments