My Flight Into Boise Was Re-Routed Due To Presidential Visit: Here’s What Happened

A little jarring hearing the captain pop on the mic two days after 9/11 to tell us he has to divert the plane away from Boise, here's how it went down...

I went to Boston for a wedding over the weekend and it was an incredible trip. On the way back, I had a layover in Chicago, and my final flight was Chicago to Boise, and let me tell you... That's a long flight. Anyway, I'm not much of a plane sleeper but I was particularly tired and I was able to conk out for a couple of hours. Upon waking up, I realized there was only about 45 minutes left in my flight to Boise and I thought, "sweet"! Well a few short minutes later, the Captain popped on the loudspeaker with an announcement... "Ladies and Gentleman, we'd like to ask you to be patient. We're going to have to make a few circles and hold off on landing in Boise."

"This is odd", I thought... Two days after 9/11 and having immersed myself in 9/11 documentaries, it was definitely top of mind. Not that I thought anything bad was happening on my plane, but it was quite a trip. The Captain went on to let us know that due to President Biden's visit to Idaho, we'd have to wait until he left the airport in order for the plane to land. Apparently the whole airport has to be clear and no one else can land or take off until he's made his way away from the airport. So the plane circled a bit and eventually they hopped back on to let us know we were cleared to head back to Boise and land. Check out this screenshot of the holding pattern I took though! And I got a couple of pics of Air Force One while I was waiting to get off the plane. Such an interesting process!

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