It is so much easier to go with the flow and accept the possibility of having to use Plan B than it is to resist it. Friday morning I had a 5:45 AM flight to Québec City with a connection at 8 AM in Philadelphia. I arrived at the airport in plenty of time only to get to the gate to find out there was a delay – the plane needed to be powered up but the equipment was not working. Our boarding time of 5:15 came and went. At 5:50, after several announcements about the continued and unexpected delay, we were finally permitted to board the plane.
On board I was talking to my seatmate, a fatherly heavyset black man, as we waited for the plane to leave the gate. The loud humming in the background suddenly went silent as if someone had pulled a plug. Power had been lost. But no one seemed to react to this apparent bad omen. However, I did groan inwardly at the thought that the silence did not bode well for my making my 8 AM connection. Two minutes later the flight attendant notified us that the cabin lights would be turned off to conserve power. Three minutes passed and then the pilot instructed the flight attendant to deplane the passengers. After some back and forth with the gate attendant we all filed off the tiny plane.
By this time it was 6:15 AM. With an hour of flying time ahead of me and a huge airport like Philadelphia to traverse to get to my connecting gate, surely I’d missed my connection. I was not happy with the thought of standing in line to get my flight changed to a later one or arriving hours after I had intended to, but I had decided that if this happened, then okay, that would be my destiny and I would deal with these eventualities if and when they arose. I’d done my part by getting to the airport early and there was nothing I could do at that point except to accept or resist the situation. I chose to take the opportunity to accept and plan for a subpar outcome if it came to that.
We were off the plane for 10 minutes. During this time additional fuel was added. My original thought was don’t these people know what they are doing? Why didn’t they fill up the tank in advance? Weren’t they planning on flying this plane to Philadelphia? I found out later that additional fuel was added so that we could fly faster to make up time. The pilot knew he had options and exercised the most expedient one.
At 6:45 our plane was on the runway ready to take off. We were on the ground and at the gate in Philadelphia by 7:30 AM. Just prior to landing I had asked the flight attendant about my connection. She said with no special tone or affect, “Your flight leaves at 8 AM.” Then she paused looking down at her manifest, looked up at me again and said, “And we are arriving at gate F 31. Your departure leaves from gate F 33, two gates down.”
I smiled a big smile as I pictured the two gates side by side. I would not have to run through the airport to get to the shuttle bus to be taken to another terminal with the hope of catching my flight. In fact there would be no running involved at all. Once I entered the terminal I looked right then left and saw my gate just steps from where I stood. I walked in the direction of gate F 33 as the gate attendant picked up the intercom and announced flight 8816 service to Québec City will now begin boarding.” There was no time to wait, no time to sit, and no time to buy that pretzel I had planned to comfort myself with. I smiled broadly again as I took in the serendipity of the morning’s events. Then I looked upward and nodded to God mentally.
Photo credit: frankieleon