It was a late night flight to somewhere. I was the flight attendant on a Saab 340A. As you can see from the photo below, there are single seats on one aisle and 2 on the other. There are 30 seats total. At the back of the airplane there is a SMALL lavatory. The plane doesn’t allow a lot of room for people to sit or move around.

A little flight control information before I go on. There is this great thing the pilots have called a Pitch Trim Actuator.

Boarding for this aircraft happens via a little staircase that folds away inside the aircraft when not in use  I could tell you all kinds of stories about those stairs and the ridiculous things that happened with them but I will move on for now. As the passengers come on board it is easy to direct them to one of the 30 available seats.

On this particular flight we had full plane with 30 passengers. As I was greeting the group and directing them to their seats, I was shocked and a bit concerned as I saw a specific passenger coming up the stairs as carefully as he could. He was a very large man, traveling with his own seat extenders. Two of them, so you can imagine his size. My first thought was about where he was going to sit. He couldn’t sit on the side with 2 seats without sitting in both seats. If he sat in a single seat he would use more than the seat and much of the aisle. I was so grateful to learn the gate agent seated him in 10A, the last row single seat. Whew! Nobody would be uncomfortable in their seat, I would be able to do my entire beverage service without being unable to go past him.

I felt terrible for him because I could see how much he was struggling as well as how embarrassed he was. Being overweight myself, I could empathize for what he must have been feeling.

While doing my beverage service, it was very dark in the cabin. I was enjoying conversations with my passengers, laughing and listening to the reasons they were on the flight. About halfway through the cabin, the pilot called. I excused myself and backed down the aisle with my beverage cart. When I answered the phone, the captain asked if I was doing an exercise class for our passengers. I laughed telling him no and asking why he would think that. They were having trouble with the pitch of the plane and relying on the switch more than usual. I looked around in the dark to see if there was anything happening that could cause that but saw nothing. Then I realized seat 10A was empty.

I panicked. He was gone. Vanished in to thin air. Wait, was the on the flight before this and I am confused. Sometimes flight kind of blend together. Even days blend together when you are working several flights a day. But I was pretty sure this was the same flight he was on. I asked the captain if he remembered the man getting on the flight. This flight? I knew it was this flight because the considered that in the weight and balance (important is such a small plane). I told him the man was gone and he laughed. Obviously something was wrong with me. People don’t just disappear in the middle of a flight.

Then it happened. The captain told me the pitch was changing again. I looked back up the aisle and saw it. A little light by the top of the lavatory door and a little one at the bottom. The rest of the doorway was dark. As the light in the doorway started to change, I realized the man was inside the lavatory. He slowly wedged himself back out of the lavatory and took his seat. Had I not actually seen him removing himself I would have never believed it could happen.