So was on BA185 over the weekend and almost immediately as we pushed off the gate at Heathrow a passenger and companion come back down the aisle toward the rear galley, something seems clearly wrong. Turns out the one passenger was having a panic attack and was afraid to fly. Crew lets the passengers sit in the last row crew rest seats and starts talking to the passengers. Panic attack passenger seems to start doing better but keeps repeating that she just wants to go home. The FA says "ok that's no problem, I'll just ring the Captain and we'll return to the gate." (It seemed, at least to me, that the crew made no real effort to convince her that it was safe to fly, rather saying "oh yeah the turbulence can be really bad TATL", etc.)

So we're fully pushed off the gate, engines starting up ready to go and the FA calls up front for us to return to stand. Takes 20 minutes to get back on the stand, and another 60 minutes to pull bags, add more fuel, push again, etc. Total 80 minute delay on departure for this. I think the crew just didn't want to be bothered with the prospect of a panicked passenger on an 8 hour flight.

Anyone have anything like this happen before? Reasonable that BA returned to the gate for this inconveniencing 200+ people (many of whom had connections)? Does BA just eat the cost of the delay (additional fuel, etc?) Would be curious to hear thoughts. Never had anything like this happen before and was very surprised how willing the crew was to return to the gate without even trying to calm the passenger down first. Would we have diverted if this happened over Ireland say? Where is the line drawn? Would be curious to hear thoughts on this. Not sure how I felt about it. Part of me felt really badly for the passenger and the other part of me was really annoyed about the delay (especially since I was crammed into the last row of Y for an extra 80 minutes!)