Day 8: Miami International Airport

With the six hours we had to spend at the airport, my airplane enthusiast mode kicked in. Once we had checked in I headed for the arrival/departure screens to see what was in store for me. I knew there would at least be some American Airlines 777s. I had no idea what I was in for though. Scanning the screen, I saw flights arriving/departing for Frankfurt, Paris, Rome, Zurich, plenty of cities in South America (including Santiago, Chile), London, Dusseldorf, etc. I dragged poor Leisa around the two concourses just to take pictures of these planes. It was fun though, really one of the many high lights of the trip. We got some good pictures of some really cool metal. Our flight had issues of its own. It was supposed to leave at 5:50 pm and at 5:45 pm the plane wasn't there and there was nobody at the gate. At about 6:20 the flight pulls in and someone finally shows up at the gate. He blames it on being short staffed. Luckily for us we had 1 1/2 hours in Minneapolis, but there were a lot of upset people with tight connections that now looked like missed connections. The guy was taking a beating from these passengers, and rightfully so. The pilots ended up making all the lost time up and no one missed anything, but Delta got lucky. The rest of our trip home ended without a hiccup. When we got to our destination that evening close to 1 am, we were glad to be home.

I took this picture this way so that you could see the winglet on this 767-300. This is the wing of a LAN Airlines plane, while the plane in the background is a LAN airplane as well. LAN Airlines is based in Santiago, Chile and they run flights to Lima, Peru and Santiago out of of Miami. A 767 interior is 2 on each aisle and 3 in the middle, for those of you who maybe don't understand airplanes that much.

 

I thought this was a cool picture with all of these different airlines. The tail closest is TACA, a Central American airline based in El Salvador, the tail in the middle with yellow and black is Avianca, a Colombian airline, and the end tail is Lufthansa, a German airline.

Here are my two passions, or beauties. Whatever you prefer. Leisa putting on a good face with a Lufthansa 747 in the background.

This is the same Lufthansa 747 after it was pushed back. It was headed to Frankfurt, Germany. I think the 747 is the most recognizable airplane out there. It has the upper deck and four engines and the size that stands out to anyone, enthusiast or not.

This is an Alitalia 777. Alitalia is an Italian based company that flies nonstop to Rome from Miami. A 777 is used for long haul flights between two major cities. The interior is 3 seats on each aisle and either 4 or 5 seats in the middle.

Look at the size of the engines! Very big! I heard once, a long time ago, that the engines on a 777 are the same size as the body of a 737. Don't know if it's true, but after looking at this picture, I believe it a little more.

In all her glory, an Air France 747 headed for Paris, France. We were really close to this one and I was so excited to see the size of this beauty.

Standing in front and seeing how high up the cockpit is makes it that much more impressive that she can fly and that humans can fly her. So cool to me!

Another tail picture. You have Air France, Alitalia, and Continental all in a row.

Here is an Avianca 767 probably headed for Bogota, Colombia. They would taxi right by this window I was sitting at.

Here are the English planes. You see a British Airlines 747 tail closest and a Virgin Atlantic 747 tail parked behind it. They are both headed to London airports. We got to taxi right by them, which was nice. It was too far to walk to them.

This was probably my favorite spot of the day. It is a Swiss Airlines A340-300. I have never seen this airline in real life and this plane is one of my favorites. I was glad to have caught this one minutes before we boarded. Hope you enjoyed the tour of Miami International Airport. I have a few more pictures that I took, but they are on a different camera, so if you are interested, email me and when I get them, I will email them on to you.