Sun Country Slip-Up

It's been a while since anything exciting has happened in Dubuque. Unfortunately, the latest excitement was due to an incident at the airport this week. Sun Country Airlines was operating a return charter flight from Las Vegas to Dubuque for all the local gamblers who just can't get their fix from the new Diamond Jo Casino and the Mystique (formerly the Dubuque Greyhound Park and Casino). The plane arrived as scheduled around 9:30pm on Thursday night. American Eagle ground handles the flight because they have a larger staff, and more appropriate equipment to load and unload the Boeing 737-800. They also are trained to use the jet bridge, whereas our Mesaba employees do not use the jet bridge in Dubuque because it is not compatible with our aircraft.
After landing, Sun Country turned off of the runway to taxi to the gate, but the pilot misjudged the turn and the main landing gear went off the pavement into an area of mud. With a full load of passengers and bags, the aircraft sunk into the mud. It did not cause a big emergency, but all the bags and passengers had to be unloaded where the plane stopped. Fortunately, there is a bus charter company located across they road from the airport. Several buses were brought down to bring the passengers to the terminal. The bags were loaded onto the bag carts and delivered to the waiting passengers.
Meanwhile, our plane called into range. I advised them of the situation and told them to plan accordingly. They were able to land safely on the other runway and taxi to the gate. Shortly after our plane arrived, American Eagle's flight from Chicago arrived. So their agents had to divide their efforts and work their scheduled flight while attending to the Sun Country passengers and plane.
The good news is that no one was injured in the Sun Country ordeal and the aircraft was not damaged. The plane was scheduled to return to Minneapolis with a load of passengers yet that night but they ended up having to take a bus. Crews worked all night to dig the B737 out of the mud. I was told the next day that they had pulled the plane out by 5am. They parked the aircraft between Mesaba's gate and the University of Dubuque's ramp. That afternoon I learned that they were flying a new crew from Minneapolis on our flight to reposition the Sun Country aircraft back to Minneapolis. My guess is that the pilots from the night before may have been on temporary suspension until everything got sorted out. I doubt that they would have been in serious trouble and I don't think there would be any chance of termination.
Everything else is fine with me. I'm still working on my CFII. The spring weather has limited my flight time, but I should be done shortly. The school year at UD is coming to a close. Students have finals this week. My new roommate, Joel, has begun moving his stuff in for the summer. The next exciting news will hopefully be Amanda's graduation at the end of May. I plan to be home for at least some of Memorial Day weekend. I may or may not get another post in before then. Depends what else happens here.

A few more pictures. (Located on page 2.)