On a flight from LAX to SJC, I ended up being separated from the group I was traveling with. It was my first time flying with a group, and I forgot to mention that we all needed to be at the gate together. As a result, everyone arrived at the gate individually. Since we hadn’t traveled to the airport together, I boarded first as usual, and my group boarded with the rest of the passengers, spread out across the plane.

After most of the passengers had boarded, an adult female passenger with Down’s Syndrome (DS) was seated next to me and another woman. It was her first time flying, and she was flying alone. She clearly wasn’t prepared for the experience and was anxious about almost every aspect of the flight—from the noises to the procedures to the takeoff and landing.

Although the flight was only about an hour and a half, it felt much longer. The other woman beside me looked exhausted. She had been in L.A. for just a day, dealt with heavy traffic to and from LAX, and was eager to get home. It was obvious she wasn’t expecting to handle a nervous passenger with DS. I felt for her. Even though I have acquaintances and peers with DS, I wasn’t sure how to manage the situation either. I ended up spending most of the flight calming the DS passenger down, trying to divert her attention away from the other woman so she could rest as much as possible.

When we started descending, the DS passenger began to panic, fearing we were going to crash. I reassured her repeatedly that everything was fine, but to make things worse, the plane had to abort its landing due to traffic on the airfield and circle back. This extended the flight and heightened her anxiety even more.

Once we landed, the other woman deplaned quickly, visibly upset, just wanting to get home. After I got off, my group told me they had seen the DS passenger in the terminal before boarding, and she had already been panicking then.

In my opinion, her parents or guardians should have better prepared her for the flight, or maybe even flown with her for the first time. And honestly, the airline should not have seated her next to me simply because we both have disabilities—it felt like they assumed I would be responsible for her, which wasn’t fair.

Years ago on a long haul flight, we lost several hundred feet in altitude very suddenly right in the middle of the meal service. All I remember is cabin crew running to get to their jump seats and food flying everywhere. By the time we landed, the plane looked like there had been a giant food fight. It was horrible.