Detour in Detroit

Well, yesterday was an interesting day! My flight was scheduled to leave at 1:47pm,  but instead, here was what happened:

11:00am   Notified that the flight was delayed to leave at 2:30pm.
2:30pm   Announced that the flight was delayed to leave 3:15pm, due to maintenance issues, so the plane left the gate to be inspected.
3:15pm   Announced that the flight will be routed through Detroit because a new crew needed to be picked up (the original crew would have gone overtime because of the delay). The plane came back to the gate around this time.
4:00pm   Everyone was rushed onto the plane so that we could try to leave ASAP.
5:15pm   Finally took off from Atlanta.
6:30pm   Landed in Detroit. Nobody was allowed off the plane because the flight was technically international (was never supposed to go to Detroit). The crew changed and we refueled.
7:30pm   Announced that everyone will miss their connecting flights by the time we get to Tokyo, but that everyone would be reassigned to the next possible flights.
7:45pm   Plane left gate and was ready for takeoff.
8:15pm   Plane went back to gate, lights were turned on, and it was announced that it was unknown why we had to come back but that we would be notified ASAP with details.
9:20pm   An ambulance and firetruck pulled up next to the plane.
9:30pm   Announced that the flight was officially canceled and that we would all be put on a flight in the morning.

Since I flew stand-by, I was not privy to a hotel voucher, but I did find a comfy chair in the airport outside a closed Starbucks with a couple foot rests and made myself a lie-flat bed for the night! I got my new tickets at 6am and am now hangin out til my new flight at 10am.

Rumor has it that the reason for the ambulance, firetruck, and police (who were at our gate when we got off the plane) was because a woman (passenger?) had accused a man (passenger?) of molesting her. We'll never really know what happened, and it's likely that the tale is farfetched, as most rumors are.

There's a lot I could complain about, but the way I see it, we were all delayed from going to Tokyo for a reason. Perhaps the change in plans means that we avoided something terrible. It's pointless to get upset over things that are out of our control, and it certainly keeps anxiety and stress down! I'm excited to hunker down with a youtube tutorial and learn how to crochet :-D

Hopefully my next post will be from Tokyo or Bangkok!!