We’ve all dealt with delays during travel, the plane that won’t take off on time. Usually we are upset, annoyed and irritated but I have to think for one plane the delay resulted in none of those sentiments.
The story begins with tragedy, a woman and her husband learned that their three year old grandson had been murdered by his mother’s live in boyfriend. He was on life support and would be taken off in a matter of hours, with his organs donated to over 25 people.
The major issue was making sure they got to Denver in time to say goodbye. It was even more tragic for her husband, since it was his daughter (and only child) while the woman was a step parent (which is not to say that she was not devastated too). But it was his only grandchild.
Her husband was in Los Angeles working so she made arrangements for him to fly from LA to Tucson where he would immediately board a flight for Denver. The man arrived at the airport 2 hours early but it was soon clear to him that he might not make it through security in time. Fighting back tears he begged TSA and other officials to let him move through security more quickly, but nobody seemed willing to help.
When he finally made it through security (several minutes after departure time for his flight) he grabbed his things and rushed to his gate where he was amazed by what he saw. Standing at the gate was a ticket agent and a pilot. The pilot asked him if he was Mark, and when Mark confirmed his identity the pilot told him that he was very sorry for his loss.
He then told him “Don’t worry, I’m the pilot and this plane won’t go anywhere without me, and we are going to get you there on time.”
Here a man risks his job to do the right thing. He could have been met with angry passengers, upset superiors and the like, but all he cared about was a grieving grandfather.
To their credit, when contacted about the incident. Southwest said they were proud of the pilot for putting people first.
Good for them all !