My flight to Sydney this week was delayed because a person went missing. She checked in herself and her baggage, then failed to board the plane. "The procedure," the captain announced as the plane remained on the tarmac well past departure time, "is that we look for her in the terminal while simultaneously locating her luggage." In the end, the woman was a no-show, they removed her bags from the hold and we set off. The question that remains unanswered is: How can someone simply vanish at an airport? My theories: a sudden onset of fear of flying, violent illness or alien abduction.