The night before I recently flew home from New York I dreamt that while flying on Virgin Airlines the captain announced we would be making an emergency landing due to a passenger’s medical condition. In my dream, of course, I was that passenger.
The next morning we took off from JFK en route to SFO. Suddenly, one and one-half hours into the flight the captain announced “Good morning, folks. I’m afraid that one of our passengers is having a medical emergency, and we have to make an unscheduled landing in Detroit so he can receive medical attention.” Good thing I was strapped in, or I might have fallen right out of my seat.
My immediate reaction was to check myself out…perhaps, I thought, I had a problem. But such was not the case; a passenger in first class was having chest pains. I’d noticed him in the boarding area, and had thought, “That guy does not look right.” Ah, well.
The landing was swift and uneventful. Our plane was met by an ambulance, and paramedics quickly boarded, examined the passenger and within ten minutes had evacuated him and sped off. We sat for another hour or so while the plane was refueled, FAA paperwork was completed, and then resumed our flight.
In this day and age, had I mentioned my dream to a flight attendant upon boarding, I probably would not have been allowed to remain on the plane. Being a “kook” is no longer an act of innocence, and predictions pertaining to things that might happen during a flight are most definitely not welcome. I had, I realized, been clairvoyant, and was sorry I had not recorded my dream, put the notes in a sealed envelope and mailed it to myself date-stamped from the airport. Claims are one thing, proof is yet another, and that’s the problem with clairvoyant moments; we don’t recognize them until events bear them out. Hunches, forebodings, vibes…call them what you may; most of us have unexplained clairvoyance in our lives from time to time, to which we pay but modest attention, if any at all. When safely back in the air, I did mention my clairvoyant dream to one flight attendant. Her blue eyes widened at the tale.
Putting aside the issue of clairvoyance, most notable was that a passenger in distress would prompt a landing and be attended to by a half-dozen paramedics and fire department personnel. They swept into efficient action to help a stranger traveling from one coast to another, someone they will never see again.
The A320 jetliner weighs over 160,000 pounds, travels over 500 miles per hour, carries 150 passengers and a flight crew of 10. It’s easy to forget how complex and sophisticated the operations of modern aircraft are, and the airlines do all they can to help passengers ignore the fact that we sit in a thin aluminum tube hurtling through the atmosphere at 35,000 feet where the temperature outside is a chilly minus 55 degrees. And yet, this hugely expensive machine and all that supports it will land because a single passenger needs help. I was touched and reassured by this kindness.
As I disembarked and said goodbye, the flight attendant with the big blue eyes smiled at me. “No more dreams!” she said.
