For my friend Azusa, it was supposed to be a long-waited vacation in New York City. Despite a big autumn typhoon, her Continental Air flight to Newark took off from Narita on time at 4 p.m. and she began to doze off, expecting a long flight to the East Coast as usual.
It was after 10 p.m. (Japan time) when an announcement was aired inside the cabin, "The Newark Airport is closed due to a customs problem. We will make an emergency landing in Anchorage."
Azusa, a former New York resident, immediately thought that it must be another airport workers' strike. But when all the passengers were escorted from the plane to the lobby of the Anchorage airport, she realized something unusual had happened.