Hello and welcome to another Flight Report! This report will document a quick trip I took to Boston last September.
Washington, DC - Boston, MA (DCA - BOS) | JetBlue | E190 [REPORT HERE]
Boston, MA - Washington, DC (BOS - DCA) | JetBlue | E190 [THIS REPORT]
Logan's Terminal C
I arrived at JetBlue's Boston home just over an hour before departure. I was very impressed by the check-in area – although the actual structure is dated, JetBlue has done an excellent job keeping the interior modern and well equipped. There were dozens and dozens of check-in kiosks with plentiful staff roaming between the rows to assist passengers. Since I wasn't checking a bag I headed straight for the security line. Because it was 6:45 pm, nearly peak time for European departures, the security line was rather long – I was through in about 20 minutes.
The apron between the two main piers of Terminal C, with quite an array of aircraft on display – everything from a JAL 787-9 and Aer Lingus A330 down to a PenAir Saab.
A look towards Terminal E. Of particular note was the SATA A310 pushing back – I believe these A310s have now all been replaced by A321NEOs.
Boarding
My departure gate this evening was C16, at the end of one of the main piers. I arrived in the absolutely packed gate area as boarding began for a TAP flight to Lisbon at C17. My flight began boarding just a few minutes after. JetBlue's back-to-front boarding-by-row procedure was again implemented – seated in row 21 I was called to board quite early in the process. So early, in fact, that I didn't listen for the boarding call for my appropriate block of rows over the TAP flight's boarding announcements. I made my way through the TAP crowd over to gate C16 and boarded with the next section of rows.
The back-to-front process meant that I was quickly storing my carry on in the overhead bin and taking my seat in 21A. I had a great view of the TAP A330 next door.
The evening sun poked through the clouds for just a few minutes as we finished boarding and the A330 was about to push back. It was shaping up to be a beautiful evening departure out of Boston.
After boarding for this completely full flight had finished, I noticed that the Jetway at gate C17 was being re-attached to the TAP A330. I figured they were working through an issue until I noticed the approaching sky.
Ground Stop
It turns out, the beautiful late-afternoon light just a few minutes earlier had been a red herring – there was an intense line of thunderstorms headed for Boston, with a good-sized cell heading straight for Logan. The captain came on the PA to advise us onboard that a ground stop had been issued for Boston, meaning that we'd be at the gate for a while.
All the ground handlers had taken shelter by time it started raining.
While the cell was nearest the airfield, the plane was rocking quite significantly in the wind – I've never experienced anything like that on the ground before. I tried to capture it on video:
During the most intense part of the rain, I caught a glimpse of a Delta A321 executing a go-around from 22L. That must have been quite a bumpy ride.
The storm was mostly passed about 25 minutes after the ground stop was originally announced. The captain came on the PA again to say that there were about 25 aircraft waiting to push as soon as possible once the ground stop was officially lifted. Luckily, JetBlue's dispatchers had slotted our flight second in the queue.
Departure
Pushing back about 40 minutes after scheduled departure time. It was getting quite dark by this point.
Terminal E was quite full of international departures by this point in the evening, including an Icelandair 767, Turkish A330, WOW A321, Air France 777 and SAS A340, among others.
The sun was still lighting up the horizon as we taxied for runway 22R.
While holding short for 22R, a Cape Air Cessna came out of nowhere on a tight right base leg and landed on 22R. That must've been a fun flight.
Takeoff from 22R, including a quick (and blurry) view of an AirBerlin A330, just before they ceased operations.
In Flight
As this was a Thursday night, I flipped the seat-back TV over to ESPN to try and watch some of that night's game. However, whatever game it was hadn't started yet, so I just changed the channel to something else. Also, the complementary Wi-Fi was not as fast as my flight up to Boston the previous day, likely due to the increased number of people on board. It still worked well enough for basic browsing and social media and whatnot.
The cabin crew came through the cabin taking beverage orders from a few rows at a time. They were also distributing snacks similarly to the previous day's flight as well.
Arrival
After a short cruise, we began descending towards Washington.
Passing over the Woodrow Wilson Bridge on final for runway 01.
Over the numbers.
A short taxi to gate 30 followed the smooth landing.
On stand with a few other company E190s. We ended up arriving about 30 minutes late due to the ground stop in Boston.
DCA's great hall was very quiet on this Thursday night.
