Okay, I’ve logged a lot of air miles for a non-road warrior type, but in all my years of flying, I had not been around for a medical emergency. The plane from Atlanta to Heathrow was pretty full. We had backed out from the gate and were on an active taxiway when people started shouting from a ways behind me. It turns out that a gentleman wasn’t feeling well and had passed out. Naturally, there was a rush of flight attendants and then a gentleman left his passenger seat and went back – I am assuming he was a doctor or other medical provider. We obviously returned to the gate, and EMTs came on-board. The gentleman was able to be evacuated by wheelchair instead of a stretcher so I took that as a positive sign. A woman deplaned with him and then there was the point of their luggage that had to be located and taken off. No, that isn’t as a courtesy (although that may well be a part of it). For some time now, there has been a computerized system that matches all luggage to ticketed passengers and while you can have less luggage than passengers such as when someone with a connecting flight makes it on-board, but their luggage doesn’t, you can’t have pieces of luggage on board that don’t belong to someone who is supposed to be on the plane. (“Extra” baggage catching up to someone is specifically noted as such.)

Anyway, that all meant it was 11:30 p.m. by the time we actually departed. They couldn’t really make up the time and I’m glad that I had already decided to lay over in an airport hotel today instead of continuing my flight to Belfast. I did get some sleep on the plane and I do intend to make it an early night. One of the keys to adjusting to the time difference is to stay up until around 9:00 p.m. local if possible. The hotel is not one I’ve used before and it isn’t quite as convenient as I had thought, but it’s fine for one night and the staff is friendly and helpful. Hopefully tomorrow’s flight will be without incidence.