I flew via USA 3000 from Fort Myers, FL to Detroit, MI. This by far was my worst experience flying. It was a full flight, and my wife and I were in an the outer two seats with the aisle seat vacant. Of course I had to be the one next to the empty seat. I am a large person, 6’4″ and flying coach I am cramped at best.
What sits next to me became an abomination. First, let me tell you, I am not trying to impugn or degrade the respect of mentally ill people, but this girl who sat next to me had Down’s syndrome, and was easily 300 lbs. Her parents were across the aisle from her.
Anyways here I am ankle to cankle, shoulder to shoulder with this girl who is constantly smiling at me. I thought to myself, this is going to be a long flight, but I can hack the next three hours. That was not to be.
The next thing I notice is that this girl has spittle building up on her lower lip. As it built, every once in a while, there would be a drop of drool fall from the center of her lower lip and fall to her girth upon her chest. Oh sh*t! I hope I do not get hit with that stuff… I thought.
As soon as the flight was climbing, she pulled out a pocket computer game of “Deal, No Deal” and preceded to play for the entire flight. This usually would be no problem, but her reactions to the game were. Whenever she would make a good decision by opening a smaller dollar valued case, she would get excited and bounce in her chair like a child would. Of course, with her size she just rubbed up and down my whole side grunting with pleasure. However, when she selected a case she didn’t want like something that was worth a great deal more, she would stick her tongue out, lock her lips around her tongue, and blow. This sent spit shooting everywhere in front of her and yes, to the side of her, all over me. Needless to say, during a game she must have done this a good dozen times. I was horrified.
What’s worse than all this was that her parents, from across the aisle, encouraged her on her selections, either cooing her on her good selections, or feeling sad for her on her bad selections. This just made her more animated and reactive. I started to fume…
I was getting very agitated, and wanted to say something, but my wife, who is a social worker and works with these people, would not allow me to say anything to her parents, or to the flight attendant. She would just remind me this girl has problems, and be happy that you do not. I remind her she is not the one who is getting washed with Down syndrome spit every few minutes.
After about a half hour of this I went to the restroom, and used the time to inform a flight attendant. I informed her what was happening, and asked that she say something to the parents to get her under control. She never did. I think that maybe she was afraid of retribution from her employer or worse yet, a frivolous lawsuit.
I was stuck with this for my entire flight. However, there was one last parting shot at my comfort, or should I say discomfort…
When the flight came to a stop on the ground, she being in the aisle seat, jettisoned up out of her chair to get her overhead luggage and caught herself by the leg under the arm rest. She proceeded to fall back, towards me.
Of course, my body was turned towards her and all I saw was a 36″x36″ Down’s syndrome butt fall straight for my face! This behemoth was falling right on me! Thank God she caught herself before that happened. I was within 6″ of getting a face full of her butt.
I still wanted to say something to her parents, suggesting that maybe they should have switched a seat with her so that their daughter could be next to one of them on the other side of the aisle, but then I thought to myself, this is probably one of the only breaks they get from her in their entire life.
In the end I felt for her and her parents, but I will never forget nor will probably ever encounter a worse flight in my life.
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