10 Times Being Late Saved Someone’s Life

Have you ever been extremely annoyed after spilling coffee on yourself and, as a result, leaving for work late? Only to find a massive pile-up on the highway that you would have been a part of if you had left home at your usual time?

Or have you ever overslept to the point where you were late for your first day at a new job, only to get there and find everyone huddled outside because a fire broke out in the office?

Sometimes, being late is the best thing to happen to a person. Sometimes, it can even save their life. The stories on this list attest to that very fact.

Related: 10 Coincidences and Connections in the World of True Crime

10 Admiral Richard E. Byrd Missed His Train

Richard Byrd was en route to join the crew of the ZR-2 in August 1921. On its trial flight, the 695-foot (212-meter) long Navy airship was to depart from Howden, England. Byrd was not having a good time of things, however, because he missed his train the day before and, as a result, arrived at the airfield too late. He was crossed off the crew list and could only inspect the ZR-2 and then watch it take flight the following morning.

He later waxed poetic about this experience, probably because he was so relieved about not being on the flight after all. In his 1928 memoir, he wrote about how magnificent the airship looked as the sunrise fell across her sides. But, back in 1921, Byrd found out the day after the airship took flight that it had broken in half while in the air, exploded, and crashed into the Humber River. Sadly, 44 British and American crew members died, as well as a black cat named Snowball.

At the time of the ZR-2’s first flight, it was the biggest airship in the world. It was also the first of the great airship disasters that followed. Richard Byrd became a famed aviator and the first explorer to fly over the South Pole. He died in his bed in 1957 at the age of 68.^[1]

9 Adriano Assis Was Late to Check In

Adriano Assis, a Rio De Janeiro hospital worker, booked a ticket on Voepass Flight 2283 on August 9, 2024. A mix-up at the airport led Assis to get a coffee instead of checking in. Thinking he had enough time, he thoroughly enjoyed his coffee before realizing he was supposed to have checked in already.

Arguing with an airline worker got him nowhere, and Assis was not allowed to board the flight. However, Assis’s frustration with the airline worker quickly dissipated when he heard the news that the plane he was supposed to be on crashed into a gated community in Vinhedo. There were no survivors.

Assis is now lauding the airline worker for ‘doing his job’ and saving his life.^[2]

8 James Stefurak Was Late for No Reason

James Stefurak had a solid morning routine that included a trip to the World Trade Center on his way to work. He would take the subway into the Trade Center, get a coffee and a newspaper before leaving again through the glass doors. He later recalled the homeless man holding open doors for commuters in the morning. He saw him nearly every day before walking the block that led to his office in the Trinity Building.

Stefurak had to be in the office before 9 a.m. every day as he worked with trading stocks. However, on the morning of September 11, he just couldn’t get going. Stefurak did not know why he was running so late, but before he knew it, he was 20 minutes behind his usual schedule. Since he was already late, he switched on the TV only to see visuals of smoke billowing from the World Trade Center.

Stefurak’s apartment building had a rooftop deck that looked out over the towers. He immediately went up to the roof and watched as the buildings collapsed. If he had not run late, he would have been inside the Trade Center just when the first plane hit.^[3]

7 Deadmau5 Missed His Flight by Minutes

On August 20, 2008, Joel Zimmerman (aka Deadmau5) and his tour manager ran through the Barcelona-El Prat Airport to catch their connecting flight. They arrived at the gate only minutes after the door was closed. With nothing else to do but catch the next flight, Zimmerman watched as the plane they were supposed to be on took off. As he stared at it through the airport window, Spanair JK5022 crashed due to mechanical issues. There were 172 people on board, of which only 18 survived.

Zimmerman recalled how at least 1,000 people in the airport held their breath as they witnessed the crash. It was Spain’s deadliest plane crash since the Avianca Flight 011 tragedy of 1983. It was discovered that the plane crashed because the pilot failed to deploy the flaps and slats needed for take-off.^[4]

6 Kevin Dougherty’s Truck Broke Down

In 2001, Kevin Dougherty booked a flight to San Francisco from Philadelphia for September 11 and was due to have a layover in Chicago. The flight was for pleasure as he planned a trip to his holiday home in Lake Tahoe. His wife had already driven to the house a week earlier and was waiting for Dougherty to arrive. Just before he was due to fly, Dougherty noticed that Newark Flight Number 93 was $150 cheaper, so he switched flights.

On the morning of September 11, Dougherty drove to the airport. His truck suddenly broke down as he exited the ramp at Exit 14 of the New Jersey Turnpike. Dougherty did not know then that a nut became lodged in his truck’s drive shaft, causing it to snap. Since Dougherty’s truck broke down near the New Jersey State Police Barracks, officers assisted him, and his truck was taken away by a tow truck.

When Dougherty finally reached the Newark Airport after catching a shuttle bus, the plane had left five minutes earlier. Dougherty booked the next flight to San Francisco, which was due to depart at 11 a.m. Dougherty did not get on that flight either after it was canceled due to the attack on the World Trade Center. Shaken, he rented a car and went back home. He finally got to Lake Tahoe that Friday, where he reunited with his wife.^[5]

5 Jerome Kern’s Alarm Clock Did Not Go Off

Jerome Kern is credited with creating the “prototype” of the modern ballad. He wrote “They Didn’t Believe Me” for The Girl from Utah, a Broadway show that saw the light in 1914. It seems composing music was always on the cards for Kern, especially considering that he was born on Mozart’s birthday. He composed some of the most memorable love songs ever, including “All the Things You Are,” “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” and “The Way You Look Tonight.”

However, if it had not been for Kern’s malfunctioning alarm clock, we would never have had those songs in the global music library. On May 1, 1915, Kern was to accompany producer Charles Frohman on an Atlantic crossing. Kern’s alarm clock failed to go off, and he overslept, ultimately ‘missing the boat.’ This boat turned out to be a ship and not just any ship. It was the Lusitania, which was sunk six days later by a German submarine, killing most passengers aboard.

Kern was only 30 at the time, and because of the extraordinary timing of his faulty alarm clock, he lived another 30 years before dying of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1945.^[6]

4 Lara Lundstrum Clarke Had a Run-In with a Celebrity

Two things happened to Lara Lundstrum Clarke on the morning of September 11, 2001. She met a celebrity and avoided almost certain death. Clarke was on her way in an unusual fashion that fateful morning. She was jaywalking across the street when a Mercedes SUV almost hit her. She stopped, and the driver also stopped and just waited.

Clarke and the driver waited for the other to move first, and the encounter became awkward. Then, Clark made eye contact with the driver, who turned out to be none other than Gwyneth Paltrow. Paltrow gave the classic hand wave that means “please go,” and a starstruck Clarke carried on. But she missed the subway train by mere seconds and had to wait for the next one. When she exited at the World Trade Center stop, it was 8:47 a.m., and the first plane had just hit the North Tower.

If Clarke had not missed that subway train because of her encounter with Paltrow, she would have been sitting at her desk when the second plane hit the South Tower. Four of Clarke’s colleagues died that day, along with nearly 3000 others.^[7]

3 Antonis Mavropoulos Was Two Minutes Late

Sometimes, two minutes can feel like a lifetime. Think about waiting through a two-minute ad or two minutes for someone to reply to a text. In reality, two minutes is nothing. You hardly ever catch two minutes going by because they go by so fast. For Antonis Mavropoulos, however, two minutes meant the difference between life and death.

Mavropoulos knew he would have to be fast to make his connection flight in Ethiopia on March 10, 2019. So he made sure not to take any luggage and to get off his first plane first. He ran through the airport in Ethiopia, desperately attempting to board Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. Despite all his efforts and planning, Mavropoulos missed the flight by two minutes. He was understandably annoyed, but not for long.

A couple of hours later, Mavropoulos learned that Flight 302 had crashed on its way to Nairobi, and everyone onboard had been killed. Earlier, he had protested loudly about not being allowed on the plane, to the point where security guards escorted him to the airport’s police station. After he heard the news, he was just shocked. It dawned on him that he would have been passenger 150 (there were 149 passengers on board) and that he most certainly would have died.

He boarded another flight a few hours after the crash and landed safely in Nairobi.^[8]

2 Robert Corrigan Overslept and Missed His Flight

In another 9/11 close shave, Robert Corrigan originally had his seat booked on United Airlines Flight 175. Corrigan planned to get up early that Tuesday morning to ensure he had plenty of time to board. Instead, he overslept, leading to him missing the flight by a few minutes. By the time he arrived at the boarding gate, the plane had already pulled away from the jetway. Finding a stand-by option for another flight to LA, Corrigan was still at the airport when the news broke about the terrorist attacks at the Trade Center.

Many of Corrigan’s friends and neighbors believed he was on the plane and gathered outside his home that night, ultimately relieved when they discovered he was not.

As the day’s events unfolded on TV screens everywhere, Corrigan realized how lucky he was. And he planned to hold on to his United Airlines ticket that could have led to an entirely different, horrific destination.^[9]

1 Anna Williams Was Loath to Leave

Sometimes, being late does not mean escaping a car or plane crash. It often does not mean escaping a sinking ship or terrorist attack. Sometimes, being late means you escape pure evil.

Anna Williams was not late for anything except getting home on April 28, 1979. Instead of going home at her usual time, she stayed out late. Williams was 63 and in the mood for square dancing that night, which was exactly what she and her friends did.

When she finally got home (after first visiting her daughter), she was annoyed to discover that someone had broken into her house. And that someone took the time to cut her phone lines. Williams searched her house, but there was no one. It was only two months later that Williams realized she had escaped evil when she received a letter from the BTK killer, Dennis Rader. The letter included a poem called “‘Oh Anna, Why Didn’t You Appear?”

While Williams was out that night, Rader broke into her house and cut the phone lines. He had been stalking her for months and could not wait any longer. He even picked out souvenirs he would take home with him after murdering Williams. When Williams did not arrive when expected, Rader got bored and left. And he never returned to try again.^[10]

fact checked by
Darci Heikkinen