At any given moment, there are about 14,000 commercial jetliners zooming around in the sky. Although the number of planes that take off and land around the world increase every single year, the number of runways that are built don’t keep up with the demand. It’s no wonder that flight delays have become so commonplace!
However, it’s not always airport rush hour traffic or bad weather that can make a plane lose its designated takeoff time slot. Sometimes an unruly passenger is at the center of all the tarmac drama!
Thanks to smartphones, we can now see real-time action of all the crazy shenanigans that happen in the aircraft’s main cabin. But, after Kristen Wiley snapped a pic of what went down on her recent flight, people were paying attention for a very different reason.
After Kristen found herself stuck inside a jumbo jet at the Seattle-Tacoma airport recently, she decided to post a photo with an accompanying message on her Facebook page. There was an interesting reason why her Alaska Airlines Flight 748 hadn’t budged an inch.
She shared:
“We are currently sitting on a plane, with a 45 minute delay. Why? Because there is an elderly woman suffering from dementia, who is very upset and confused.”
Kristen knew that it must have been a very scary situation for the woman when a security guard in a yellow vest boarded the plane and approached her seat. Only the passengers nearby were able to witness the scene when the guard crouched down in the aisle and prepared to make his next move.
The elderly woman was bewildered and cuddled her emotional support dog in an attempt to understand the chaos of her surroundings. It can’t be easy for a dementia patient to live from moment to moment, and suddenly find themselves squished like a sardine in a flying tin can.
