Airport, airline, flight delays. Lots of them this week.
A young man sat next to me on the last flight. “This is the longest I’ve ever been delayed!” he fumed. “Four hours! Unbelievable!” Suddenly he remembered he wasn’t the only frustrated person. So he asked me, “How long have you been delayed?” “Fifty-two hours,” I said.
He couldn’t even process that information. Maybe because he was so agitated. But I was so calm.
I wanted to say: this is nothing. Let me tell you about some of the things I have seen in my fifty years of flying.
One time the airport got hit by a storm, and lost electrical power. Another time, as I was waiting to board, I saw our empty plane burst into flames. A passenger had a panic attack and insisted the staff let him on the burning plane, so he would not be late for his meeting.
One flight made an emergency landing in the middle of the night when a passenger had a heart attack. On another flight, a passenger was arrested because they refused to stow their bag properly.
Once I landed at a eerily quiet airport where a small plane had crashed earlier in the day. “Kind of a sad day,” the taxi driver said. Another time I landed at what looked like a closed airport. As I deplaned, a reporter pointed a microphone at my mouth. “What do you think of today’s terrorist incident?” he asked. “Well, I’ve been in the air.” I said. “I haven’t heard the news.” The reporter pointed to the big TV screen in the empty terminal. A giant passenger jet had exploded over a nearby airport.
Once I flew home from visiting my Dad, and found out that he had died while I was in the air. Twice I’ve been delayed and questioned as the airport responded to bomb threats. Many times I’ve been separated from my luggage, sometimes for my entire trip.
So, a four hour delay? If you can afford to buy yourself a meal, and your health won’t crash, it’s not a big deal. Definitely not worth converting your precious emotional energy into anger!
But I didn’t say any of this. I don’t think an agitated person wants to hear about planes exploding and loved ones dying.
So I just smiled. Kindly, I hope.
***Photo: Laura Duhan-Kaplan. Read about my favourite airplane experience here.
