I once passed out (exhausted) 10 feet from the boarding gate in JFK. They paged me all over the place and finally the plane left. When I woke up, I realised what had happened. At first the attendant got all huffy; but when she realised I had been right under her nose, she felt sorry and put me on the next flight out (from EWR) .

Sorry, this wasn't related to the topic I guess.