Despite reading about it in The Sun, the following story really moved me:
A hero pilot held up an entire flight so a devastated passenger could say goodbye to his dying grandson.
The man had been rushing to visit Caden Rodgers, two, after he was reportedly critically injured by his daughter’s boyfriend.
But he had been delayed at LAX Airport getting through security and as he arrived at the gates was expecting the worse.
He was stunned to discover the South[w]est Airlines plane still there 12 minutes after it should have left at 11.50am.
Instead the pilot had halted take off, telling him: "They can’t go anywhere without me.
"I wasn’t going anywhere without you. Now relax.
"We’ll get you there and again, I’m so sorry."
It meant he could say goodbye to his grandson, ahead of his life support being switched off and his organs donated to others…
Click on the link above for the whole story. The plane made up the lost time in the air, but even if I had arrived 12 minutes late I could not have been angry after learning why the flight departure had been delayed. I can’t speak for United’s Captain Denny Flanagan, but this seems like something he would do and something I think is very appropriate in these rare type of situations, even acknowledging the ripple effect a delayed flight can cause.
The cynical side of me says this was all a publicity stunt by Southwest, but even if it was, the man reached his grandson and Southwest did a mighty good deed.
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