18. An Incredible 9/11 Close-Call Survivor
On a flight from London to New York in late 2008, I sat next to a guy who had an incredible story. Seven years earlier, he was taking the same flight from London to New York. Just as the plane began its descent into JFK, he looked out the window and could see smoke rising high into the atmosphere from Manhattan.
It was the morning of September 11th, 2001, and the first plane had just struck the first tower. As his plane made its final approach, passengers had a perfect view out of the window toward the city and the burning tower. Unsure of what had happened, it was only after passing immigration they found out that a second plane had hit and that it wasn’t an accident.
His flight was one of the last flights to land in NYC before the diversions and airspace shutdown came into effect. He showed me the stamp in his passport with point of entry “JFK – 9/11/01.” He even had a reservation for a hotel in downtown Manhattan, close to the World Trade Centers, which was completely inaccessible.
Before he could get into the city, the tunnels and ports closed, and he relied on the kindness of others to get him to a motel somewhere out of the city. He was planning to meet someone at the World Trade Center only days later. A completely unforgettable experience for this man, and a story I often think about when landing at JFK.
19. A Brilliant, Efficient Crusader
I sat “next to” Ralph Nader on a red-eye from LAX to Houston, which was actually a longer flight than you might think back when prop planes still flew on some routes. I put “next to” in quotes because I was sitting in the far-right seat and he was in the same row, in the far-left. The row was empty and I doubt if there were 5 people on the entire plane. So I could see clearly what he was doing.
He boarded with a stack of newspapers. Apparently, he had stopped at the newsstand in the concourse and bought one of every newspaper. I estimate he had 10 newspapers. He placed the pile on the empty seat next to him. But instead of reading each newspaper serially, one by one, the way literal-minded, uncreative me used to, he quickly turned through the pages, scanning the titles and headlines. When he found an article that caught his interest, instead of reading it, he tore out that article and placed it on a growing pile of articles next to the shrinking pile of newspapers.
When he was done, he sorted the article pile so the various versions of similar articles were collated together, and then, finally, he read the articles. It was a revelation to me on how to quickly research newspaper articles across various publications. Had he been sitting immediately next to me, and seemed interested in conversation, I would have loved to ask him questions. But I am a New Yorker. We do not approach celebrities. We respect their space and honor their privacy.
By the way, I suspect that many of you do not know how important Ralph Nader is. He single-handedly, against the most vicious and outrageous opposition by leading automakers, forced them to take seriously the need for building auto-safety at the design level. It was he who stopped the production of the dangerous Chevy Corsair. It was he who helped prosecute Ford for the gas tank that was installed directly behind the rear bumper and too often exploded even following a minor rear bumper tap from another car.
20. Out Drank By A Girl
I was flying to Amman, Jordan for a semester and my first flight from Boston was heading to London. I was a little nervous that I would be leaving home for 4 months, but figured that this was an experience that would really help me mature and become the adult my parents expected me to be. As I boarded the flight, I noticed that my seat was next to a cute girl and slid in past her to take the window seat (she took the aisle… weird right?).
Anyways, other than the quick hello, we were pretty much silent for the first 30-45 minutes. Only did once the flight attendant came around did she reach over and grab my attention (I was watching a movie on my tablet). She asked what I wanted to drink and reminded me that there were free drinks on the flight. In order to look more cool, instead of asking about all the choices they had, I simply told her that I would have whatever she was having.
4 hours into the flight, I felt like I was on the verge of fainting. Anna (who we’ll name the cute girl) was having more than I’ve ever seen anyone have. I mean, I feel quite experienced with my drinking capabilities and this girl was putting me to shame. I assumed that the flight attendant would stop getting them to us, but Anna became friendly with one of them and they only switched us to lighter ones after the 8th or 9th regular.
We talked about where we each were going; I think she said she was studying abroad in Ireland or something. Anyways, the small talk goes for the entire flight and with about an hour left, she asks if I want to go see the top deck of the plane. I knew we couldn’t get up there, but I was down for the adventure. We got up from our seats and stumbled to the front of the plane. There we met our friendly flight attendant who talked with us for about 10 minutes before explaining that there wasn’t anyway he could let us up there until the plane landed.
Disappointed, we began stumbling back to our seats when I began to notice that everyone in coach was locking eyes with me. They were staring at me like I had a weapon of some sort. Anyways, just before we get back to our seats, I notice the guy in front of me with the disappointed look decided to move his chair all the way back, great… The rest of the plane wasn’t fun because Anna fell asleep and I was now having my legs crushed by some guy.
Come to find out, most people had thought that I was attempting to join the mile high club with Anna who was clearly not fully there. Long story short, I found her on Facebook and we message every now and then. Weird flight, but definitely a memorable one.
21. Wildly Fascinating Indigenous Veteran
One time during an airplane flight back in 2007, I had the chance of sitting next to a man who was full-blooded Native American. I never really had the opportunity to talk to many natives growing up in Miami, Florida, as the government put the native reservations near the swamps, away from most people. Most of the people I knew in Miami were from Central America or South America. Some Europeans, Russians, some African-Americans. You get the picture.
So this man is sitting next to me was an indigenous veteran of the Vietnam War. We had the best conversation about the era, too. My father was a Vietnam vet, so we had some things in common. Then, this guy started speaking his native language! I’m not sure what tribe he was from (sorry, I’m not too updated on how many native tribes there are left beside Navajo, Cherokee, Miccosuke, Calusa). I wish I could’ve remembered his name. He had a really interesting name, too.
I was so amazed. Being a musician, I was always into the language of music, and how music was itself related to other languages that people speak. I was utterly fascinated with the sound, inflections, and percussiveness of his native tongue and the fact that after all the horrible things his people had to face on their own lands, that this man, a Vietnam vet who served for the very country that eradicated most of his own people, still had his language, his traditions, and spirit. After all the horrible history, he still spoke to me like an equal. He was passionate in telling me about his language and traditions. He wanted to teach me, and I wanted to learn. I was very touched by his kindness.
He was such a special person that nine years later, I still think about it occasionally sometimes.
22. A Fascinating German Spandau Prison Veteran
We were flying back from L.A. to Brisbane with my wife. Long flight (about 14 hours). On top of that, I am scared of flying, and on top of that, we had our 2-week-old son who was born in San Diego after 5 years of unsuccessful IVF attempts. Just to paint you a picture of my state of mind. Yes, I needed a distraction! Next to us was an old couple from Texas.
After taking off and the usual pleasantries, I asked the man if he was on holiday. The plan was to try to engage him in a conversation to distract my brain, and also because I was genuinely interested in giving him some information about Australia. I like to offer tourists suggestions. He said they will be traveling around (as usually is the case) starting from Brisbane, then down along the Pacific Ocean and so on.
I asked him what he used to do for living: ex-military. Jackpot! I am fascinated by that topic. He told me he was stationed in Germany during the Cold War. Another jackpot! My favorite historical period! I asked him where: Spandau prison. Are you kidding me? I just finished reading Albert Speer’s Spandau diaries. What the heck was he doing in Spandau?
Turns out he was the prison dentist. So he had the chance to meet Speer and Rudolph Hess amongst other inmates. The prison was run in turn by France, Britain, the USA, and Russia. We talked about their lifestyle in Germany at the time, how he met his wife and other things that I can’t remember. To this day, that was the most interesting person I met on a plane.
23. Kind-Hearted And Transformative Buddhist Monks
Back in the summer of 2016, I boarded my first flight to fly to New York. Interestingly, another girl occupied my seat (54A) by mistake (she had 54F) but since I was flying for the first time, I wanted to take the seat which was allotted to me. Two Buddhist monks sat next to me. One likely in his 40s, the other one was a 93-year-old holy man.
They took interest in my interests, wanting to know where I come from and what I’m heading to the US for. It was Fashion Law. And when the Abbot, Nicholas Vreeland (who we all call Nicky) of Rato Dratsang Monastery in Mundgod, Karnataka (which I found out later through his emails to me), he told me his grandmother was called the “Fashion Empress.” He would tell me I’ll get lost in the big city and kept pulling my leg.
He also revealed his journey that as a young boy, he grew up in a privileged family, having lived in France, US, and Germany, but once unable to discover the true meaning of life, he set out on his journey to study Buddhism. Only after I returned to India did I read more about “Nicholas Vreeland” and in my interactions with him for 6 hours, he had only been able to give a glimpse of his personality. He is also known as the “Monk with a camera,” and there is a documentary on him.
Rinpoche, the 93-year-old holy man, was a joy to look at. His eyes had a spark and his smile contained in it the infinite joys, as you see in a child’s laughter. We soon became very fond of one another. Nicky would convey what Rinpoche would say to me as he spoke very softly and didn’t have strong hearing anymore.
When I had to get off at London to catch my connecting flight, Rinpoche held my hands, “Take care and we hope to see you again,” and blessed me. They did meet me in New York a few days later. I met them for Rinpoche’s eye checkup. And they brought along another friend of theirs who was a smart lady, who taught me a lot about the infinite options of salads to choose from. We all went for lunch at a French Restaurant in East Side.
My journey in the US seemed more like unfolding for all spiritual reasons. And having Nicky and Rinpoche’s presence occasioned my journey with grace. And them coming to meet me was a sign that I was loved and cared for. I’ll never forget my first flight experience.
24. A Maternal Change Of Heart
Last summer, My sibling and I went on a trip to India. Whilst returning, our seat numbers got switched and I ended up sitting next to a girl that looked about 12 and a little boy that looked about 7. Now, call me selfish but I was kind of disappointed because I thought these little “creatures” would bug me the whole flight and I wouldn’t get any sleep.
I settled down in my seat and the plane started doing its thing. I then told my antisocial self to talk to these “creatures” and appear friendly. So I introduced myself and the girl quietly introduced herself as “Ahva” with a H. She was quiet for about 5 minutes and then to break the tension, I saw the book she was reading (Harry Potter….forgot which one it was) and made a comment on it. Her eyes instantly lit up and she started talking about it.
Now, keep in mind that I had NEVER even touched a Harry Potter book and I was completely clueless on whatever she was saying but I tried to connect some pieces based off of what my obsessed friends had talked about. The plane started to get ready to take off and she instantly gripped my arm and started shaking. She was scared of take-offs. To ease her tension, I asked her if she traveled alone with her brother and she said yes. How brave.
For the rest of the fight, we talked and talked and talked. She was so interesting and she kept telling me about her trip to India and her half-Indian ethnicity. She had beautiful hazel eyes and she told me that she was ready to “get all Amurican” when she goes back to Alabama. Since it was a 16-hour flight, she had fallen asleep and I was watching a movie. Her head rested on my shoulder and when I tried to get up to go to the bathroom, she gripped my arm tighter. I got some sort of maternal feeling which was very unusual for my dark soul.
Yep, when we got off, I was kind of sad and she shook my hand and then we parted ways. She truly made my flight interesting and watching her stare in fascination at the Qatar Airways flight food was pretty exciting.
25. A Genius Dutch Lawyer
Not having been a regular flyer, I remember a number of people I have been seated next to during flying visits to the U.K. and continental Europe. However, there were two real stand-outs during all those travels. One was a hostess named, I think, Heidi, on the Singapore Airlines flight from London to Singapore. All the cabin crew were excellent, but she stood out in the way she engaged each passenger, briefly and appropriately, as she did her rounds. A smile and a brief, friendly comment or question made all the difference. The woman next to me and I spent quite a bit of the trip talking about how well this young woman interacted with passengers.
I spoke to this hostess as I was disembarking and told her how impressed we had been, and later sent a commendation to the airline. Heidi had recently completed a degree at Heidelberg and spoke very fluent German. The highlight, though, was my companion as I flew out of Berlin, returning to England. We were waiting to take off and I noticed that she was anxiously leafing through papers on her lap. This went on for a while, so I asked if she was alright.
It turned out that she was a Dutch academic lawyer specializing in how traditional law and formal law interact, and wasn’t nervous about flying, but about the fact that she was going to London for a job interview with a Muslim-backed educational institution concerned with similar issues—certainly an area with overlaps with her own research field, but also very different from the traditional universities she had been involved with in Germany.
As you can guess, she was a very intelligent woman, and also witty, and our conversation was both intellectually stimulating and uproariously funny, all the way from Schönefeld to Gatwick. At least, I presume the flight took place, as I didn’t really notice it. We continued our conversation on the train into London. I got off at London Bridge to head back to Sidcup, and she was getting off somewhere near St. Pancras. A young woman who worked in a jewelry store and had been part of our conversation on the train offered to guide my companion to the correct connections.
I have often wondered if she got that job.
26. A Miracle Medical Career Breakthrough
So this is going to be the story about the greatest professional moment of my life, you can call it a completely career-defining moment, too. It was in 2011. My third year had just begun in medical school. I was onboard an Indigo flight from Manipur to Kolkata via Guwahati. Yeah I know, tedious northeast flights. In third year, we begin surgical subjects and they had caught my interest already.
So that eventful flight I was carrying a textbook and reading like a complete nerd. I was off to vacation at my sister’s place in Kolkata. I remember I was sitting next to a Manipuri lady when the flight started from Imphal. I had a window seat, though generally I prefer the aisle. Suddenly my rapt attention was broken by a male voice sitting next to me. “Bengali?” he said.
“What? Oh, yes,” I said, taken aback. He was a man in his late 40s, bespectacled and good looking, in a nice suit. The rest of the conversation went in Bengali. For obvious reasons, I did not ask if he was Bengali too. We talked about Tagore songs, Bengali commercial movies, sci-fi Bengali literature by Sharadindu, fish, hilsa and everything nice about Bengal for the next 15 minutes.
As I am very bad with small talk, and I wanted to go back to reading laryngeal levels of dissection, I found an excuse. Just before the flight started the descent, he asked, “Third year, is it?” I froze. Was he a doctor too? Oh no. I was acting a snob in front of maybe a senior doctor, given his age.
As I started putting down the book and finally registering the man’s face now properly, he said, “Get a version of McGregor. Start anatomy from there. Before you read any surgery. These days they don’t make such surgical books here anymore.” He gave me his card. Consultant Surgeon and Professor at a very renowned medical college and hospital; Bangalore, it said. Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery Department. I noticed his long amazing fingers, his clean short nails and the perfect way he had held his cup of coffee.
I was red in the face. Somehow I kept up a straight face. He was Assamese. Knew Bengali, amidst other languages. Of course, I met him again. And of course, I hunted down an original McGregor from College Street Kolkata which is still the best bedtime read I have. We stayed in touch through professional links, both when I started learning surgery in Bangalore years later, in a different institute, and even later, when I was frustrated with Indian exams.
Now that I am almost ending a degree in infections and half-done through a degree in surgery, I think that was the moment that defined me as a doctor.
Shutterstock
27.Unbelievable Serenade By Lynyrd Skynyrd
Flying from London to Atlanta for the Olympics in 1996 (just to watch) as a none-too-smart student on KLM. Somehow, even with a rucksack and wearing jeans and a t-shirt, I was upgraded to business class, obviously a great start to my trip. We took off and I settled in with some snacks and a glass of bubbly and I noticed that 3 or 4 passengers around me were, if it were at all possible, even scruffier than I was. I started to chat with my neighbor about our respective trips and found out that they were a band who had just finished a tour and were on the trip back home. Eventually, it got to the obvious question: what was the band called and would I know them?
What followed made this flight such a great memory for me. When he told me their band name, I said I was sorry I didn’t know them. This had quite an effect! First of all, the entire band got involved throwing song titles at me and were almost stunned I didn’t know them (I should mention that music, and their particular genre, wasn’t really my thing; had it been an author, a scientist, an actor, I’d like to think I’d have been a bit better!)
What happened next was my own private concert. A guitar was retrieved from the overhead bins, drumsticks (or similar, time has made my memory hazy!) were found and the back of my seat became an impromptu drum kit. I proceeded to get the greatest hits, including “Freebird” and “Sweet Home Alabama” and a lot of “you must know this one.” So I got my own dedicated concert by Lynyrd Skynyrd at 40,000 feet.
Afterward, when instruments had been put away, I found out about the band’s history, the plane crash bit going down as well as could be expected halfway over the Atlantic. I heard about how they reformed, about Forrest Gump, and a little about American politics. Jonny explained how he was looking forward to running around without clothing in his fields on his return!
The rest of the flight was pretty uneventful except for a few businessmen stopping me on the way out and thanking me for the most entertaining flight they’d ever had.
28. Nathan Fillion’s Stunt Man
Nathan Fillion’s stunt double for Firefly. I felt bad for him because it was an 8-hour flight to London and I would not be quiet. But he did tell me about Serenity the movie a few months before news of the movie came out, so I got to feel like the cat’s pajamas for awhile.
Flickr
29. Not The Best Band, But A Band None The Less
I was once on a plane to LAX with all the members of Korn plus their management team. They sat in coach. This was in 2002. It was a long flight and we all ended up inebriated. They bought all my beverages. Gave me some really nice stuff. We never once talked about their band. It was actually pretty cool. Nice dudes. Terrible, terrible band.
Wikimedia
30. A Nasa Astronaut
My son and I and three others had just climbed into a 206 Cessna when the pilot beside me climbs out and a guy wearing a NASA flight jacket climbs into the pilot's seat. Sat beside a retired astronaut ’til I bailed out at 8,000 ft. Not every day you meet an astronaut. Too bad he couldn’t get the little Cessna to space. Good pilot though.
31. A Humbling Royal Presence
For our honeymoon trip, we flew first-class out of Paris to Bangkok on Thai Airways A380. After boarding the aircraft and settling in, the flight attendant in the first-class cabin came to our seats and had an unusual request. She wondered (more like ordered) if we would be amenable to using the business class lavatories instead of the first-class lavatories because a member of the Thai Royal Family was going to be flying with us that day.
Little did we know that it would be the Crown Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn along with her ladies in waiting that would occupy about half of the remaining seats in the first-class cabin. Of course, we were a bit disappointed that we spent good money on first-class tickets, yet we won’t get the full first-class experience aboard because they have to block off some of the amenities on board because there’s royalty.
Upon landing in Bangkok, the same flight attendant asked (more like ordered) us to remain seated while the Crown Princess and her entourage disembarked from the plane. While we thought that the Royal entourage only occupied half of the first-class seats, there was a significant number of business class seats that were also occupied by the Crown Princess’ entourage.
I think the redeeming part of flying with the Crown Princess is that Thai authorities would shut down congested roads so that the Royal family members can cut through city traffic. By the time we cleared immigration and customs, the roads that Thai officials previously closed for the Crown Princess were being opened just as we were driving through. We were expecting heavy traffic to the Peninsula hotel downtown, but because of the road closures due to the Crown Princess, we totally didn’t experience the traffic at all.
32. An Insanely Compassionate Doctor
I feel kind of ashamed at the assumptions I made on this occasion. I had been traveling a lot with work so generally got bumped up to business class. One time I was put in economy, next to a woman who gave a pleasant housewife vibe, and was being very friendly. I thought she would be nice, but not hugely entertaining.
After a while it turned out she was a doctor. Not only was she a doctor, she was a professor at Harvard Medical School. She specialized in brain cancer surgery. She had recently volunteered and organized the funding for surgery for a young girl in an orphanage in mainland China who had lost her sight in one eye and was about to lose it in the other.
After the surgery was successful, the doctor asked what would be next for the girl. She was told she would be going back to the orphanage where she would have to endure fairly unpleasant conditions. So the doctor adopted her.
Pixabay
33. A Double-Whammy Of Celebrities
It was 1998. My husband passed on in July, and it was now August. I was traveling to Boston to spend my birthday with my daughter. I was definitely in a fog, putting one foot in front of the other. I got to the airport, LAX, and at the check-in counter learned my flight had been canceled with no flights available until the next day. I think I sort of lost it. Not angry, just flattened. Hugging my daughter was the only joy that had kept me focused for those hard last weeks. I was crying, blurting out my little story. The airline clerk asked me to give her a moment and she would see what she could do.
A few minutes passed and she called me back to the counter. She handed me a packet, and told me to RUN to the next terminal, to an airplane on another carrier. I thanked her and took off as fast as I could, dragging my little suitcase, realizing the terminal was several minutes away. After a long run, totally breathless, I boarded the plane. I handed my packet to the stewardess and she directed me to my seat. WHAT? FIRST CLASS? Never in my life had I flown first class. Was this a mistake? The stewardess just smiled and confirmed I was in the right seat. So I settled down and settled in.
And caught a glance at my seat mate in the window seat. Gee, he looks familiar. He introduced himself. Mike Wallace. The 60 Minutes Mike Wallace. Holy cow. After brief exchanges, he shared that he had grown up in Brookline, Massachusetts, where I was headed. We were chatting pleasantly waiting for the delayed takeoff when he whispered to me, “There’s a celebrity coming aboard.” I said, “I thought YOU were the celebrity.” He just smiled and pointed to the two men, obviously Secret Service, entering ahead of a celebrity passenger.
The last person to board was Nancy Reagan. She was placed in the seat directly in front of me. She had a brief exchange with Mike Wallace and then we took off. I then witnessed a great conversation between the two across the seat. Updates on the health of the former president, discussion about a conference she was attending in Boston. I leaned forward and asked if she would like to exchange seats with me, so that they could converse more privately. Secret Service men checked out my area while I stood in the aisle, and then she took my seat, and I hers. Mr. Wallace was a lot more fun to talk to than the Secret Service man I was now next to, but I enjoyed seeing the two famous people chatting away during the rest of the flight.
Just before landing, we had to switch back. Mrs. Reagan said, “Mike told me about your husband. I’m so sorry, dear.” And she gave me a wonderful motherly hug. When we landed, she thanked me again and I wished her, and our former President Reagan, well. Mr. Wallace walked with me through the terminal to the gate where my family was waiting. He greeted them and told me goodbye. My family was flabbergasted.
I learned that day that my life was not over. That many new wonderful experiences were ahead for me. And that good people would show me kindness, if I let them. All I had to do was be open to possibility.
Wikimedia
34. An Entitled Celebrity
My former husband used to be a road warrior. He was almost always bumped up to first-class so he met a lot of characters. On one flight though, he sat across the aisle and a few seats back from this woman who was acting totally crazy. Putting her feet on the wall in front of her, gabbing on the phone before take-off. The flight attendant asked her numerous times to get off, and she wouldn’t. Finally, the flight attendant said sarcastically “Should I have the captain wait??” the woman stopped her phone call and said: “Oh, yes, would you?”
Anyway, as the flight went on her behavior became more erratic and domineering. She pulled out a salad and ate it with her hands, spilling it all down her front and all over the seat. She took the paper of the guy sitting next to her (who clearly was not with her, just a stranger), yelled at the flight attendant many more times complaining about drinks and food and pretty much everything around her. The entire first class cabin was flabbergasted.
Finally, the flight attendant who had seen my ex on that flight many times came over and talked to him and said “I think she’s a ‘somebody’ but I’m not sure…hang on”…she brought over the manifest and said to my ex. “Does A. Huff ring a bell?” and he said, “Uhhh yes, Arianna Huffington definitely rings a bell.” Sure enough he texts a buddy of his when he lands who used to work with Arianna Huffington and says he saw her on his flight. His buddy said “was she acting insane?
35. Nothing More Cathartic than Coloring
I was on what I call a rumpled suit flight—one of those flights on a Friday at 6 from NY to DC where most of the flight consists of business people in suits drinking $14 double whiskeys. A fellow rumpled suit sat across the aisle next to a mother and her kid. When she could the kid brought down her tray table and a coloring book and started coloring.
I didn’t hear what was said but at some point, the kid handed the rumpled suit a coloring book and they spent the remainder of the flight coloring and chatting. I was kinda like, “I want to color too.”
