Wednesday morning in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, an American Airlines 757 slid off the runway in snowy conditions (additional info here and here.) My friend Mike (who is also my friend Doug’s older brother) had been vacationing in Wyoming for two weeks. He wasn’t on that particular AA flight, but was due to fly back to NJ Wednesday afternoon. The original Wednesday plan was that after the movie, Doug & Kathy would drive 10 mins over to Newark Airport and pick him up.
After the Wednesday accident, the Jackson Hole airport was closed down, and no AA or United flights were going in or out that day. Mike was able to make arrangements to catch another flight the next day (Thursday) to O’Hare, but ending in Philadelphia. Since I live only an hour from Philadelphia, and Mike lives 15 mins from our house, I volunteered to pick him up. I left for the Philadelphia airport around 12:30am, and dropped him home in NJ without issue. By the time I got home, it was 3:15am. What a long day!