Ever had a trip go horribly wrong?

My work takes me to all four corners of the globe. Every year I get to travel to different places, meeting with suppliers, visiting clients and following my favourite footie team around the world. I’m a lucky chap. 

But when you travel as much as I do, you have your fair share of trips gone wrong too. Cancelled flights, missed connections, bad traffic, dodgy hotels… I’ve experienced it all. But nothing quite like what Suni and Butch just went through… Imagine planning an eight-day trip… and ending up stuck for nine months. That’s exactly what happened to NASA astronauts Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore.

Back in June 2024, they blasted off to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard Boeing’s brand-new Starliner capsule, expecting a short, 8-day stay to test the spacecraft’s capabilities. But shortly after arriving, things started going wrong. A series of technical issues, including helium leaks and thruster malfunctions, made the Starliner unsafe for the return journey. So instead of a quick mission, Suni and Butch were left stranded. Stuck. Waiting for a solution 250 miles above Earth.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I get impatient waiting for a delayed flight – never mind being stuck in space with no way home! With no immediate fix in sight, they had to adjust. Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into months. They kept busy – running experiments, exercising to slow down muscle loss and making the best of an unexpected extended stay. Finally, after months of uncertainty, their ride home arrived this week. NASA hitched them a lift on a SpaceX Dragon capsule, which safely splashed down off the coast of Florida.

It got me thinking… No matter how big your budget, or how well you plan, things can (and do) go wrong. In freight, we see it all the time. Cargo gets lost overboard. Containers catch fire. Pirates seize vessels. That’s why it pays to be prepared. Plan. Then double-check your plan. And always have a backup plan (insurance!)just in case… Because when the unexpected happens, you’ll want to know that you’re covered.

How about you? Have you got any tales of getting stranded? Stories of travel disasters? I’d love to hear them…