Recently, I went to the United States on a business trip. I had a tightly packed schedule, with stops in five cities, and as many as five connecting flights in eight days, including a cross-country flight from the West Coast to the East Coast. My staff, who had planned the trip, must have felt that I thought I was still in my prime. 

Anyway, not only did I survive the relentless itinerary with a Spartan-like resolve but also went through incredible adventures during my sojourn in America.

Initially, it was a pleasant trip. The excellent in-flight service of Korean Air made me feel so comfortable that I was snug as a bug in a rug all the way to Los Angeles. When our plane touched down, I discovered that LAX was no longer an inconvenient, crowded place, teeming with passengers. Thanks to the ESTA express lane, I could walk out of the airport without facing any hassle or having to wait in a long, serpentine line at immigration.

Disaster struck at Raleigh-Durham Airport in North Carolina, when novelist Kang Young-sook, my assistant and I boarded a plane bound for New York City at 8:20 p.m. While taxiing for take-off, we were suddenly instructed to return to the gate because apparently JFK was paralyzed due to radio frequency jamming issues. The captain informed us that no planes could take off or land at JFK for at least several hours, probably until midnight. This was cutting it too close because we had to catch the Korean Air Flight 086 departing at 12:50 a.m. for Seoul.

I had to be back in Seoul by Monday morning at any cost. I was scheduled to deliver a lecture for ASEAN delegates in the morning and another for delegates from the Netherlands in the afternoon.

At 10 p.m., the captain announced we could board the plane. Nobody, except us, seemed to be in a hurry and, incredibly, it took 20 minutes to complete the boarding. Then the captain announced that since we had returned to the gate, our plane needed new paperwork to depart. “It’ll take 10 to 15 minutes,” the captain announced. In reality, the paperwork took half an hour to finish.

Meanwhile, we had to sit and wait in a small, suffocating plane. Finally, we were cleared and good to go. But it was 10:50 p.m. already and our estimated arrival time at JFK was 12:50 a.m. exactly when KAL 086 was scheduled to take off. I despaired.

Our plane arrived at Terminal 5 at JFK at 12:30 a.m., which meant we had only 20 minutes to catch the flight. The problem was that in order to get to the International Terminal, we needed to take the Air Train. Then we had to rush to the Korean Air counter to check in, and go through the security checkpoint before boarding the plane, all within 20 minutes. It seemed like mission impossible. 

However, my able assistant kept talking over the phone to my staff anxiously waiting for us at the Korean Air Gate. “She said she could hold the plane until 12:45 a.m.,” my assistant told me. “We should run.” So we ran all the way to the Air Train. Alas! When we arrived, we saw the sign, “The Air Train is closed.” I despaired again.

Then we found a small sign that read: “To get to the International Terminal, take the outbound train to Federal Plaza and switch to the inbound train there.” We got on the train bound for Terminals 6, 7, 8, Jamaica Circle and then Federal Plaza. The train moved so slowly, it felt like it would take forever. When we finally got off at Federal Plaza, the last inbound train was just arriving and we barely managed to board it. Luckily, the next stop was the International Terminal.

When we got off the train, it was 12:50 a.m. already. A man in KAL uniform greeted us and immediately radioed, “They’ve arrived.” Then two KAL officers came to escort us to the plane. The airport manager, a Caucasian woman, was waiting to authorize our boarding. Thank God, we were exempted from both check-in and security check procedures. As soon as we boarded the Korean Air at 12:55 a.m. the plane began leaving the gate. We had miraculously caught the plane in the nick of time.

Without the thoughtful, considerate Korea Air staff, the generous American airport manager, and my persistent assistant, Shin Soo-kyung, I could not have caught the plane. Had it not been for my competent staff member Lee Yoon-young and professor Kim Jong-hoe who persuaded the KAL officers at JFK to wait for us, I could not have returned to Korea in time to give my lectures. I learned a valuable lesson that day: Never give up, because miracles do happen!
  
By Kim Seong-kon

Kim Seong-kon is a professor emeritus of English at Seoul National University and the president of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea. -- Ed.