See those lights? That would be about seventy thousand fire trucks and police cars outside my airplane window, all of which showed up shortly following an explosion towards the back of the plane that happened seconds before takeoff and caused the pilot to slam on the brakes, sending the plane kind of skidding across the runway (I’m not faulting the pilot here; I am absolutely thrilled that braking occurred rather than flying).

Apparently we made the news. Here’s someone’s video of our little adventure.