Last night we were watching the news, and a story came on that caught my attention. There was an American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City on which there was a passenger who went nuts. Seriously. As passengers were asked to make sure their seatbelts were fastened and their tray tables were up, the Nut stood up and began shouting , “You can’t hold us.” He refused to sit down.

The fact of the matter is that they could, indeed, hold him because they were some-20,000 feet in the air. Unless he wanted to jump out of the plane ala Harrison Ford in Air Force One (a movie Bill and I recently watched, vowing never to fly again), he was stuck on the plane until it landed. Unfortunately, the other hundred-some people on the plane were stuck listening to the man go insane. He apparently sat down and began moving his mask up and down, up and down, up and down his face, while growling wildly.

They decided the man was intoxicated. I’m guessing his problem was more than three or four Jack and Cokes. But what do I know?

Poor flight attendants. The things they clearly have to deal with on a daily basis. The person delivering the news of this crazy man went on to say that situations such as this are frighteningly common these days, and more often than not, they start with someone not wanting to wear a mask.

As for me, I would happily wear a mask (and do) if I could only have a bit of breathing room between rows and seats. I don’t think I will ever go so far as to stand up and yell, “You can’t hold us,” but I will admit to being quite crabby on flights longer than an hour-and-a-half.

This story caught my attention, because on Monday, Bill’s daughter Heather and our 12-year-old grandson Joseph flew home from Denver to their home in Vermont. That evening, I sent Heather a text asking how their flight went. It was a polite question, and I expected a simple It was a good flight response. Instead, she immediately texted back this information:

The flight was really crazy. The guy in the seat across the aisle from Joseph seemed to overdose and stopped breathing. They had to get on the PA to ask if there was a doctor on board. There were a few people who helped and they revived him. It was very scary and stressful…..One of the medical people switched seats so she could sit next to him and keep an eye on him. Anyway, Joseph was really freaked out we were glad to get off the plane.

The flight was four hours long, and they still had another hour-and-a-half to go. I spoke to Heather and Joseph yesterday, and Joseph had settled down. “I was really scared, Nana,” he told me. He showed me how he huddled into his mom for the rest of the flight. The man had fallen into the aisle right next to the poor kid.

Joseph told me he saw the man go into the bathroom shortly before all of the drama began. The man apparently took (or shot) something, ODing shortly after.

I will stick with my Bloody Mary before flights, and promise to stay in my seat for the entire flight.