Though I may have had reservations about flying at this time after working on the film set of “Flight,” by the time my neighbor dropped me off at the Marta Station, I rode the train to the airport, printed my boarding pass, went through security, rode the airport tram to the concourse and found my gate, I was well on my way to Kansas City with all thoughts of the movie behind me. I was looking forward to seeing my sister with great anticipation and enthusiasm. Our flight was on schedule, and we even left a few minutes early. It was not a full plane, many empty seats on my 10:10 flight from Atlanta to Kansas City. In fact, the man across the aisle from me had three seats all to himself, alternately sitting next to the window and then in the middle seat.
Though I may have had reservations about flying at this time after working on the film set of “Flight,” by the time my neighbor dropped me off at the Marta Station, I rode the train to the airport, printed my boarding pass, went through security, rode the airport tram to the concourse and found my gate, I was well on my way to Kansas City with all thoughts of the movie behind me. I was looking forward to seeing my sister with great anticipation and enthusiasm. Our flight was on schedule, and we even left a few minutes early. It was not a full plane, many empty seats on my 10:10 flight from Atlanta to Kansas City. In fact, the man across the aisle from me had three seats all to himself, alternately sitting next to the window and then in the middle seat.
My trip proceeds with the usual announcement about safety gear and our scheduled time of arrival. The flight attendants proceed to first serve drinks and assorted chips and cookies to the first class passengers before serving the rest of us coffee and soft drinks and those crispy cookies. I meanwhile glanced through the airline magazines in the back of the seat in front of me. I ask myself, does anyone ever buy any of this stuff. Some things were enormously expensive, and other things were so strange I couldn’t imagine anyone using them. I was excited that the plane had Wi-Fi until I realized the cost for 15 minutes. I decided against getting on my Mac to surf the net. Unfortunately I hadn’t downloaded any movies to watch as I haven’t learned how to do that yet. Also I wasn’t in the mood to write anything.
Unexpectedly, the flight attendant announced is there a doctor on board about the same time I noticed a young man staggering towards the front appearing to have a seizure. At first no one got up, then the rather athletic large man across the aisle from me walked to the front. I assumed he was a doctor and was answering the call. I’ve watched too many episodes of “House” on TV. “Dr. House to the rescue,” I thought to myself. Soon after my neighbor across the aisle got to the front, the young man started walked from the front of the plane back to the beginning row of tourist class. The flight attendant said to him, “Not that way, this way, and several people escorted him back to the front of the plane by the restroom. The restroom door was held open so I couldn’t see much except several people were sitting on the floor. I assumed they were restraining the man having the seizures.
The pilot made an announcement to fasten our seat belts and put our seats in an upright position that we would be landing shortly for a medical emergency in Memphis. Soon we arrived in Memphis. My first guess is we would land in Nashville, but then I saw the Mississippi River winding all around. With no further adieux we landed at the Memphis airport. I didn’t see an ambulance but several police cars. Then an ambulance pulled up as well as a fire truck. We sat there quite a while until the young man was carried off the plane on a stretcher. So I thought we’ll be going now.
The man across the aisle had returned to his seat and assured us the man was okay when someone asked, and that he worked with Jackson County Hospital, the county to where I was headed. I thought how helpful it was to have a doctor on board and wondered what the flight attendants would do if no medical personnel had come forward. But then the flight attendant asked the man to come up to first class as the FBI and someone from the airlines wanted to talk with him. At the time it seemed a bit extreme that the FBI would be talking to him about a medical emergency.
I was reassured soon that all was well when our flight resumed to Kansas City. We would be there in about an hour. I was hoping my brother-in-law had checked ahead to see that the plane was delayed. I had called my sister but only got her voicemail. Soon we arrived. I say soon, because I fell asleep for a short nap so it seemed like we’d only been flying ten minutes or so. The flight attendants came around with drinks and snacks again that was quite hospitable I thought. The second time around I had a coke and pretzels instead of coffee and a cookie. So between my snack and my nap the time passed ever so quickly, and I was finally in Kansas City.
I was so glad to see my brother-in-law standing there to get me, I did not even notice the TV cameras around or that someone was interviewing the man across the aisle from me who had volunteered to help with the medical emergency. All I knew to tell my brother-in-law was that there had been a medical emergency which is the same thing he had been told at the airline counter. Nothing more was said about the flight the rest of the afternoon. I was just sorry I was late, and he had to wait on me an hour.
The evening news here in Kansas City was a shocker. There was my neighbor across the aisle being interviewed on TV. What? The young man who was having the seizure then tried to open the door at the front of the plane and the guy had to take him down in a chokehold and render him unconscious until we could land. As it turned out my traveling neighbor was a sheriff’s deputy and an EMT. He had hesitated to volunteer waiting for a doctor to offer his services. Fortunately for those of us on the plane he was perfectly qualified to deal with this kind of person.
Now the whole scenario made sense—the FBI, all the police cars, fire truck and ambulance, and the delay while they checked out the plane. As I was listening to the news, I flashed back to my time on the set of “Flight” and began to feel quite fortunate that this guy didn’t open the door. I’m not an aeronautics' expert, but I’d say opening a door would have caused an airline disaster midair and I wouldn’t be hear to write about it.
My most striking memory of the incident is how calm everyone was--the flight attendants, the pilot, and the EMT/sheriff’s deputy. Those on the plane mirrored their demeanor. Maybe the only sound at all was the small child in front of me asking are we going now? Up and down, up and down, are we there yet? And her mom reassuring her “Almost. It’ll be soon.”
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