'I kept hearing this weird noise from the plane': Passenger looks after an 80-year-old solo traveler on a flight to the Philippines, forming an unlikely alliance to get through an ill-fated flight

Author image for Jesse Kessenheimer
Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Oct 8, 2025 1:00 PM EDT

Everything that can go wrong will go wrong. It's Murphy's Law. But when you're about to board a 25 hour flight to the Philippines, imagining the worst that could come of the flight is not only daunting, but utterly terrifying. I've traveled on planes many times, but there's still a strange feeling of woe when you witness the airline mechanics duct taping the wings, haphazardly tossing the luggage onboard, or seeing the flight attendants stress out in their secret seats. 

You never know what could go wrong on a flight, but all you can do is hold on, review your safety manual, and clutch the hand of the elderly 80-year-old solo passenger seated next to you on the plane. 

Sometimes, it's the strangers you least expect who are there to help you out in dire crisis times, and for this young woman, getting seated next to an old woman turned out to be her saving grace on the world's worst flight. 

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    Cheezburger Image 10561428480
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    There was this time that I was taking a midnight flight home and the second I boarded the plane, I had just knocked out because I was so tired. I woke up thinking that I took a really quick nap, but then the
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    cabin lights were on and I thought that they were serving us dinner, but then the flight attendants were giving us cookies, which is weird because it's supposed to be dinner time. And when I checked my phone,
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    it had been three hours since we boarded the plane and apparently we're still on the ground. We're supposed to be over the ocean by now. But then I kept hearing this weird noise from the plane,
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    probably from the engine or something. And you know, that didn't sound too good. But eventually they announced that our flight would be canceled and that Philippine Airlines would give us free accommodation
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    and food and will reschedule us for the next available flight, which would be at midnight. So because the flight was canceled and I was all alone, I was kind of scared. So I decided to make a little group
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    just to make sure that I wouldn't miss the next flight, okay? I eventually make a group and it consisted of me, the Lola, the old lady who sat next to me on the plane, and then a family of four. So there were six of us. The Lola who
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    was sitting next to me on the plane, she's like 80 years old and she was traveling alone. So the whole time I just stayed with her and I just helped her with everything just to make things easier for her.
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    Now it's 6am and we're in line waiting for the airlines to give us our hotel assignments. And this whole time Lola just assumed that me and her would be roomies, which I understand because you know she's old and alone and she's probably scared
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    and she doesn't know what to do. But at the same time, I was considering my safety. She is a stranger and I've heard so many horror stories at the airport of people helping others, especially elders, and then things just go bad, okay?
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    So I got scared and I'm calling my dad and he's telling me to not share a room with her and that I need to get my own room. And I'm like, yeah, you know what? You're right. Okay, I'll figure it out. But I still felt bad because she is old and she does need help. And
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    even though I couldn't share a room with her, I still wanted to make sure that she would be okay. So I asked the other family in our little group if it was okay if Lola stayed with them. And they were like, yeah, sure, no problem. So thank God for them.
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    Anyways, I managed to get our rooms right next to each other at the hotel just in case we needed to contact each other if we knew any updates regarding our flight. So we get to the hotel at 8am and we're just there for the whole day. And we are
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    surviving off of whatever we have in our freaking carry- on bags because we left our checked bags at the airport. So we were there for about a good 12 hours and we make our way back to the airport around 8pm. So we
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    get to the airport and everyone else from the flight the other night is there again and it's just really crowded.
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    And as we're in line to get our new boarding passes, this lady from our flight who's talking really, really loud and she's telling people that she is not getting on this new flight because she feels that there is something wrong and that something bad is going
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    to happen like last night. And everyone around was just looking at her like, what the heck is going on? What the heck is she on? Having caused a commotion in the middle of the airport. What does she mean? What is she talking about? You know how at the airport when
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    Cheezburger Image 10561428736
    via Alfo Images
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    you make a joke about a bomb, they are going to put you in handcuffs and escort you out of the airport? That is what they should have done to this woman, okay? Because the amount of fear that she instilled in all of us was overwhelming. Even I was scared, okay? I was on
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    the verge of having a panic attack. I was taking deep breaths and praying to God, please let me get home safe and sound in one piece. I'm not going to care about what this lady says.
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    And then it's midnight and we still haven't boarded the flight. Time passes and it's already 3am and I'm about to spiral because I'm letting that woman from earlier, I'm letting her voice get into my head. What is wrong? Why have we not boarded
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    yet? What is wrong with this plane? But then like a few minutes later, they announced that we could start boarding. So thank God. So we finally board this plane and me and Lola are seated next to each other again. And she tells me to ask one of our other
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    friends for Tylenol. So I walked to the front of the plane and I get the Tylenol. This time around, I made sure that I was not going to fall asleep until I knew that this plane was up in the sky.
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    So we finally take off, we get served our dinner, and I was able to sleep like a baby for six hours. When I wake up from my six hours of sleep, Lola is just looking at me and I'm just smiling back at her awkwardly. And she's like,
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    oh, good for you. You were able to sleep for a really long time. And I ask her if she was able to sleep and she was like, no, I've been up this whole time. And I'm like, oh, okay, well, just close your eyes. I even offered to help her with her headphones and set up the
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    little TV on the plane so that she could watch a movie and potentiallyfall asleep. But she said no. So I get up to go to the bathroom and when I come back to my seat, Lola looks so frantic. She tells me to get a cup of water for her. So I do that. And when I
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    come back to my seat again, she is clenching her chest and she is breathing heavily. And I'm just like, oh my gosh, are you okay? And she's telling me that her chest hurts. So now I'm all frantic and I managed to get one of the flight attendants over. And I'm telling them
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    like, Lola said that her chest hurts. And the flight attendant is asking Lola if they should ask for any medical professionals on board. And Lola's like, no, I think I'll be okay.
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    And then a guy sitting across from me leans over and asks Lola if she takes any maintenance meds. And Lola's like, yeah, I do, but I haven't taken it in the past 24 hours because they're in my check bag. And then I'm like, whoa, hold up. If she had told me
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    that, I would have done something earlier. Okay, I would have asked the airlines to get her bag and get her medicine. She did not tell me that. And she tells this guy that all she took recently was a Tylenol. This guy looks at me and he's like, she should not
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    have put her medicine in the check bag. And I'm like, I know. And then he says, she also shouldn't have taken the Tylenol. And I'm like, yeah, she shouldn't have taken the Tylenol. And I got so scared because I gave her the Tylenol. But then again, she asked for it,
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    but still. And what if that was the reason for her chest pain? I was just so scared. And then Lola kept asking me how many more hours until we land. And I'm like, six. She's like, what? I'm like, yeah. Are you going to be
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    okay? She's like, I'm just going to try to sleep. And I'm like, okay, you go do that. With six hours left on this flight, I was tripping, okay? Because what if we needed to do an emergency landing? Where would we land? We're literally in the middle of the Pacific Ocean,
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    okay? Where? And then that lady from the airport who's like, oh, something bad's going to happen, something bad's going to happen. And I'm like, oh my gosh, what is happening?
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    Anyways, Lola wasn't able to sleep the entire flight, but we did make it home safe and sound. So moral of the story:
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    Keep your medicine in your carry-on bags. Maybe bring some sleeping pills with you if you go on a long-haul flight.
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