Our flight was supposed to leave Chicago at 5pm on Thursday March 14th. We boarded it around 715pm. On the way into Chicago, this particular plane was struck by lightning so they had extra checks to do on it, plus it was delayed getting in. I guess if I got stuck by lightning I might be delayed too.
While my 300+ passenger "friends" and I waited outside the gate many continued to drink...and drink...and drink. It is St. Patrick's day weekend, after all, and we are headed to Dublin first. Many of my passenger friends were quite hammered after food vouchers and 2-4 hours of uninterrupted drinking. By the time we boarded many could not walk a straight line down the jetway.
We all got seated. As we were about to pull back from the gate one young spring-break passenger decided to attempt a bathroom trip. He staggered up to the restroom, which we conveniently were sitting right next to, and struggled to get the door open. Once he pried it open enough to squeeze through, he fell inside of it and it slammed closed. After crashing around inside for a moment he was met by an unexpected knock from an agitated flight attendant in green, who pleaded with him to go sit down. He claimed he couldn't hear her. "I'll be out in a minute. Can't I have a moment to pee?"
She actually said, "No. Not really."
He banged around trying to get the door open and once he figured the door out, he was met by an angry flight crew.
The flight attendant said, "Sir, are you prepared to sit down? We need you to get to your seat and we will serve you no alcohol. Are you prepared to do that?"
Any rational human being would say yes immediately and find their seat. We, however, were past rational.
"Why you all up in my business?" Was his reply.
The flight attendant repeated her statement.
"Why are you harassing me? I just had to pee."
The woman in green stood to her full 5'3" height and said, "Sir, you struggled to open the door, fell into the bathroom, and missed the toilet. Are you going to go back to your seat, sit down and go to sleep and we will serve you no alcohol? Do you agree to that?"
This ennobled youth decried this injustice and decided to fight for his liberties.
To which he was met by an invitation to go to the front of the plane just as a child headed to the principal's office.
What happened next was a mystery, really. Was he kicked off the plane? I'm honestly not sure. He went to the front, made his way back to the rear of the plane and then...
They decided to cancel the flight... for everyone.
3 reasons were listed:
1. The plane was delayed because of the lightning strike.
2. Captain said, "there was a brief incident with an inebriated passenger." And
3. Because of these things we were not able to pull away from the gate in time and now we are over our flight crew's legally mandated hours for breaks.
"Stay in your seats, folks, we don't know what to do with all 300+ of you."
The rest if the evening was interesting. All 300 of my friends and I were led as cattle back to the front of the Chicago, Illinois airport to get our luggage and a hotel voucher.
We paid $80 for a 20 minute cab ride to the hotel - pretty sure that was a scam - but we shared a cab with a guy and he was going to pay $65 for just himself to go to the same hotel. Now that we jumped in, we all owed $40 each. Do the math on that one.
It would be wasteful to send back this plane back without all 300+ of us so after we all had a break from each other, my 300+ friends and I are all hanging out together at Chicago O'Hare hoping to leave 22 hours later than we had scheduled. Same plane. Same seats. Same friends. Same flight crew.
The question on everyone's mind is: where is our drunken friend?
There is a possibility that he is still stuck in the front of the airport as they decided to manually re-do everyone's tickets and connections starting at 930am this morning with only 4 workers. Everyone who got past the 4 workers literally received cheers and clapping from the 300 others waiting in line.
What adventures await us today?
