The unfortunate situation of Huntsville’s Midget AE missing their flight home makes coach Jeff Suddaby giggle a little.

“You have to giggle or you’ll go crazy thinking about it,” he said.

On March 6, the Midget AE team, along with a handful of parents and siblings who opted to go on the trip, arrived in Paris for a week of sight-seeing and for the team to play some hockey games against European teams. The trip was booked through HockeyProm, a Belgian organization that assists all levels of minor hockey, adult or recreation ice hockey teams all over the world to plan ice hockey tours and travel to Europe and the United States.

Suddaby noted although they didn’t win any games, the trip gave the team the opportunity to meet other teams from across Europe and provided those who attended with the chance to travel abroad.

The week went fast and before everyone knew it it was time to head home.

“What happened was when our tour guide did our agendas, he put in our arrival time in Paris rather than our departure time,” explained Suddaby. “On the Thursday we were leaving (March 13) we got to the airport, checked on our flight and were notified that the flight had left two hours ago.  And there we were ¬¬¬– 44 people left at the airport in Paris.”

Suddaby said he along with the stranded parents tried to arrange another flight later that day or on the Friday, but there was nothing available until Monday.

“We started to search for accommodations for everyone,” said Suddaby, adding that one family was able to book a flight that day to get home and deal with an unfortunate family matter. “The rest of us found a hotel 15 minutes out of the downtown core in Paris with a train station right around the corner from the hotel. Luckily, we were all able to get rooms and we ended up having a beautiful weekend in Paris. Once we all knew we were going to get home and had accomodations, everyone settled right down. We got to experience Paris and the shopping. It was really a lot of fun.”

Suddaby said a call was made to Huntsville Travel and a flight was organized for the team on the Monday morning.

“It was booked last minute, so that was amazing,” he said. “The one hiccup was that we had to fly to Quebec then to Montreal, and we tried to get a connecting flight from Montreal to Toronto, but that wasn’t available. A coach bus picked us up in Montreal and we were coached to Toronto, where all of our cars were waiting for us at the airport. It ended up being a 22-hour travel day by the time we got home, but we ended up having a beautiful weekend in Paris. The overall trip was outstanding.”

Suddaby indicated that the company that booked the flight had not been dealt with; however, the incident would be addressed this week, as it cost people extra money to make the additional accommodations for the weekend.

“Without a doubt it was a great experience. The kids had a lot of fun, and that’s what it was all about.”