I’m sitting in my seat on flight CA992. Bound to Tokyo.
Only half an hour ago, I have stirred up the plane a bit. For safety reasons.
I must admit, I felt very American in that few minutes of action. Almost heroic. And a bit ridiculous.

The young man with glasses sitting next to me was highly nervous. His hands trembled and he hardly could hold his newspaper. Only minutes before, when checking in my luggage, I had seen him unpacking his two suitcases and stuffing them again. All in a very chaotic manner and directly in front of the checking counter. Suspicious, I thought.
My suspicion rose when he asked permission to pass by my aisle seat. He had just taken the seat, so why the hell did he want to get up again? In the stream of boarding passengers I lost sight of him fast. And then he did not come back. Meanwhile his hand-luggage was still stored directly above my head. A plastic-explosive device? A time bomb??

I called the steward and told him about my careful observations (there I started to feel very American). He of course did not understand me (I still do not speak any Chinese) and asked me if I missed my friend. I explained again and he said “Ok” and started doing what most Chinese do when they have no clue: watching away and doing nothing.
I felt responsible for the other passenger, my unborn children and myself and started walking down the aisles looking for that spooky guy. I made it to First Class, but there was only one guy looking vaguely similar, and when I shook him awake, I saw that it was not my co-passenger.
I went back to see whether passenger X has taken his seat again. Still there was nobody. Again I called the steward, this time together with 3 Chinese who started to be anxious, too. I told him that he must call out the passenger with boarding pass 39K. Further-on, I made it clear that I wanted to see this passenger’s luggage removed in case he was not to be found. I added “or I will hold u responsible in case of a bomb explosion” (which does not make much sense, I know, but the effect was amazing and I felt like in Hollywood). Passenger 39K got called out (I can only guess, because it was in Chinese). One of the toilet doors opened and a green-faced man stepped out – my passenger 39K. Obviously on his first flight ever, he had sort of a nervous stomach. Or was he nervous because of something else…?

We are 90 minutes into the flight. The food has just been served. So far the bomb has not exploded.