Every August I start remembering this event, especially when thunderstorms hit the DFW area (like today). I was flying on about my third flight as a consultant - flying home from New Orleans to DFW in August 1985. My co-worker who was very control-oriented insisted on checking us both in for our scheduled AA flight. We checked-in and proceeded to the gate. He asked me where the tickets were and realized that he had left them at the counter. The GA would not let us board so we missed the flight (the only flight I have ever missed). He retrieved our tickets and Delta honored them (they were full-fare tickets). We boarded a Delta L1011 (almost the back row and next to my still irritated co-worker) and took off from New Orleans on this Friday evening; our flight was continuing from Florida. About mid-way, the pilot announced that we were being diverted due to weather conditions at DFW. Thirty minutes or so I started hearing lots of dings from the phones the FAs used; then the FAs started crying (not a good sign). Nothing else was said. When we landed at DFW at the Delta terminal, we found out that a Delta plane (that was flying pretty much a parallel route to our Delta flight) had crashed. I later found out our missed AA flight was the plane that landed just before the Delta flight that crashed.

It was scary but 2,100,000 miles and 17 years later, I still fly but I always remember.