Saturday July 25

I had not anticipated writing about my trip home, but it was such an unusual day that it has to be included in the adventure. I was up at 5:45 in the morning to finish packing and have a quick breakfast at the hotel before leaving. The bus left at 6:45 to take us to the airport. We had to go back to the hotel to pick up our guides, since we had left them behind. Maybe that should have been a clue about the day we were about to experience.

At the Frankfurt Airport, we had to find the group check-in area before we could check our luggage and get our boarding passes. We finally found the area and then had to wait for our group’s turn. Once we were at the counter, we wanted to check our luggage all the way to our final destination, rather than having to re-check our luggage in Washington D.C. The Lufthansa people could not find our cities of destination very easily and so some of us tried to help them by giving the airport code of the city.

So, it now it was my turn to check my luggage. I gave them what I thought was the code for Winnipeg Airport, which was YWG, and the clerk immediately typed it in and started printing off the luggage tag. He then asked if he should check if it was in fact the code for Winnipeg. I said I thought that might be a good idea. He did a cross-reference and verified that the code was for Winnipeg. Then he handed me my boarding pass and said, “Good luck.”

I thought that was a very unusual salutation for an airport clerk!

It took a full 45 minutes after the printed boarding time before we were let on the plane. After we were seated and the doors were closed, the pilot came on and said we had been delayed because of technical repairs that needed to be done. Then about 2 minutes later, he came back on the intercom and said that we would be delayed another 15 minutes because someone who had checked a bag onto this flight had not made it onto the plane so the ground crew now needed to find that luggage and take it off the plane. So, an hour after the scheduled take-off time, we were finally taxiing down the runway.

We had noticed that there were a lot of children on this flight and a couple of the teachers commented on how this could be an interesting flight. Several minutes after take-off the babies and young children began to cry. One child, especially, began wailing very loud and yelling incomprehensibly. This noise carried on for quite some time, and to make matters worse, began kicking and hitting those around her. Eventually the flight attendants were trying to help this child by offering her something to drink and medication. Eventually we were told that this child is autistic and has not flown very much before. The pilot and flight attendants were working hard at finding a cabin pressure that would not be painful.

An hour into the flight, the noise had subsided and we were being served dinner. Shortly after dinner another commotion was developing. A man was not feeling very well. He did not speak any English or German and another person was asked to do some interpreting. Shortly after an announcement came over the intercom that there was a medical emergency on the plane and anyone who was a doctor, nurse, or paramedic was to meet with the flight attendants at the back of the plane. So, several people went to the back of the plane and then the flight attendants took two ladies up to this man. They tried to communicate through an interpreter and than another announcement was made that if anyone on board had insulin, please notify the flight attendants. This man had diabetes and had not brought any medication along. His blood sugar level was way out of whack.

The two ladies checked on this man periodically and needed to give him a second injection of insulin. At this point, the crisis seemed to subside and we were able to watch movies, nap, visit, etc.

While we were being served a snack, I mentioned to the second in command flight attendant that this was quite a challenging flight. She told me that this morning she was scheduled to fly to Dallas Texas and had made plans for her evening there. Arriving at the airport she had been rescheduled for this flight and she was not enjoying it.

Fast-forward 5 hours and we are now about an hour out of Washington D.C. We are given this information and the weather conditions in D.C. No sooner has this information been given when the crying begins. It seemed as though every child and baby was now weeping loudly. As we begin our descent, the child with autism becomes very agitated and yells loudly, throwing herself and other items around her.

We are now only 5 minutes from landing, and we experience quite severe turbulence. I also notice that there is a lady now beginning to seizure further up the plane. The flight attendants are now out of their seats trying to get this lady out of her seat and on the floor whilst the plane is rocking and rising and sinking dramatically. We touch down on one back wheel, with the plane veering to the side. The pilot lifts us off the ground, readjusts the direction of the plane and sets us back on the ground. As we were de-planing, we noticed that the lady having the seizure was one of the ladies that had helped the diabetic man.

We said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. I was scheduled to fly to Denver and then on to Winnipeg. I noticed that the flight to Denver was already delayed coming into Washington D.C. and I also new that I had a very short window of time to connect to the flight to Winnipeg.

We left D.C. 40 minutes after the scheduled departure and had to fly around several storm cells. As we were began our descent into Denver, a lady two rows back began to weep and wail. It seemed she was terrified of landing, and the pilot’s announcement that there would be turbulence because of the thunderstorms was not helping. Another passenger was holding her hands and talking her through this crisis in her life. We landed and I had 10 minutes to get off the plane, find my gate number, find the gate and get on the plane to Winnipeg. Luckily the gate was in the same terminal, so I made it with enough time to go to the bathroom.

The flight to Winnipeg was uneventful and I landed on time at 10:30 local time, which was 5:30 a.m. Germany time. My family and my mom met me at the airport and it was really good to see them again.