A United Airlines captain offered a heartfelt apology after leaving three passengers behind in Newark, and his words struck a chord far beyond the terminal.
“We Saw You, We Felt For You” – United Airlines Pilot’s Emotional Apology To Passengers Left Behind
As flagged by One Mile At A Time, I quite appreciate the sentiment of United Airlines Boeing 787 captain Luis Perez, who wrote on LinkedIn about the passengers he had to leave behind on a recent flight from Newark (EWR) to Lisbon (LIS):
I want to say I am sorry to the passengers we left behind last night (October 12th) on United Flight 64 from Newark to Lisbon.
Our team had delayed the departure by six minutes to wait for late connecting passengers. Once everyone had boarded, the gate agent closed the flight, pulled the jetway, and we completed our final checklists in preparation for pushback.
Just as we were ready to go, the tug driver asked if we could take two additional bags that had just arrived from the late connection. We agreed, and the ramp crew quickly loaded them into the aft cargo compartment.
While that was happening, we noticed three people waving from the windows in the boarding area. At first, we thought they were pointing at the jetway — but we soon realized they were trying to get our attention, hoping to still make the flight.
It broke my heart to see them there, pleading to come aboard. Unfortunately, at that point, the flight was officially closed. The jetway had been disconnected, the gate agent had left, and the weight and balance had already been completed.
Reconnecting everything would have required reversing multiple safety and operational steps, causing a long delay for other passengers making onward connections.
Still, the sight of those passengers stayed with me.
It was a powerful reminder that behind every procedure and checklist, there are real people — with hopes, plans, and stories.
To those travelers: if you ever read this, please know that we saw you, we felt for you, and we truly wished we could have brought you with us.
It’s a very sweet note and a human one that expresses empathy and care. While some might dismiss it as just another “Good Leads The Way” marketing ploy by United, it strikes me as very sincere
Is This The Exception Or The Norm?
Of course, the captain made the right call: re-opening the aircraft door, even if the gate agent was still present, could have put the onward connections of many onboard in jeopardy. United’s Connection Saver technology calculates how long a flight can be held for late-arriving connecting passengers, and it appears this flight was already held for several minutes. Holding it longer could have hurt more people than it helped.
Maybe I’m naively optimistic, but I know several commercial airline pilots and they are all great people…while it might be rare to see this sentiment put in words, as Captain Perez did, I don’t think it’s all that rare a feeling. Pilots are people too, possess empathy, and also understand from personal experience that missing your connection can create a huge headache. I don’t think pilots ever take any delight in seeing people miss their connection (unless they are flying on standby and get a premium seat as a result…).
The broader issue is communication: as much as customers hate delays and cancellations, communication defuses tensions and calms people down. As technology continues to improve, airline tech like the United app can better keep passengers informed about their delays and connections, reducing those moments in which you wave to your aircraft as it taxis out of the gate.
Some have said the captain threw his colleagues under the bus by making this post, but I don’t see that at all. He’s not blaming anyone or throwing shade at the gate agents or operations team. Rather, he’s simply saying he sorry he could not get those passengers onboard.
CONCLUSION
In an industry where operational precision often overshadows personal connection, Captain Perez’s reflection is a reminder that empathy always has a place in the cockpit. Procedures exist for good reason, but moments like this show that the best crews never lose sight of the people behind every boarding pass. It’s a small gesture, but one that makes United’s slogan feel just a bit more real.
image: Luis Perez / LinkedIn
On a completely different note, aeroroutes report that China Eastern have filed a route to DEL. From a quick Google search, it looks like the last direct commercial flight between the two countries was before the pandemic, and Indigo will start flying to CAN from the beginning of the IATA winter season. Be interesting if you could do a post on the issue and the politics around it.
There is a TAP flight that flys out later in the evening. Sounds like leaving was the right thing.
No guarantees that United or TAP would make that happen for any of those affected.
Oh, how I wish “operational precision” was actually more of a thing, because in many cases these missed connections are not the fault of those passengers, rather, it was a delayed flight by that same airline earlier in their itinerary… if only the USA had actual air passenger rights legislation, like EU261, UK261, or Canada’s APPR, which could properly compensate passengers who are significantly delayed or flights cancelled by the airlines, which provides compensation (not just performative apologies) in addition to rebookings or refunds. We deserve better.
The USA needs Rule 240 to be codified into law and made compulsory for all airlines doing business in the USA.
How could holding the flight another five minutes have hurt more people than it would have helped? It’s not as if passengers were making a connection in Lisbon. This was a point-to-point flight that could easily have made up time in the air, especially with a tailwind. Instead, you have passengers who not only missed their flight, but are now without their bags. There needs to be greater coordination on the ground. This wasn’t on the captain.
Lisbon is a major *A hub. When I flew to VXE in Cabo Verde, the business class cabin was full of Americans on some kind of fishing/diving trip (I was in the first row of Y, definitely not paying a four-figure sum for 4 hours of Eurobusiness). Miss that connection and you’ve missed 2-3 days of holiday!
It isn’t that easy or that simple. First of all the flight was already delayed because of loading late arriving bags for passengers already on the plane. Secondly the fact the flight was already closed out weight and balance sent meant the passengers were already dropped from the passenger manifest/dropped from the flight. Customer service would need to rebook these passengers back onto the flight which is easier said than done and would require time more than 5 minutes. International flights have multiple steps they have to go through to make sure the passenger manifest is correct as that information is transmitted to the arriving country. Whether it was the passenger fault or United’s fault as to why these passengers missed their flight allowing these passengers to board would have caused more of a delay for everyone else onboard the aircraft as all the required paperwork had already been completed and transmitted.
This isn’t the first time United has left international passengers behind, I’m fairly certain this isn’t the first time this captain has left passengers behind. What this captain has done may seem like heart touching moment but what it actually shows is his lack of respect or understand for his colleagues in other departments and the hard work they do. It also shows his lack of understanding in all the steps involved in getting an international fight out and how much of an extended delay it would have cause had United put those passengers on. Even if they had opened the door and put those passengers on and pushed the plane out they would have sat on the taxiway burning fuel waiting for new paperwork to be submitting and transmitted before they could get clearance for takeoff. I promise you it would have been more than just a 5 minute delay.
United once re-opened the door for me. The jetway had been pulled away slightly and the agent said “wait, don’t fall in!”. She forgot to close the terminal door to the jetway, which is why I was there. They reconnected and opened the door for me.
….or they could just show up on time and not be selfish and delay hundreds of other people…
What if… hear me out, it wasn’t the passenger’s fault; as in, their connecting flight, by the same airline, messed this up; would you think differently then? (We don’t know the full details, so just as you speculate negatively about them; perhaps, we should give them the benefit of the doubt, since, you know, often we, on here, are usually passengers, not airlines.)
Bet they let a dog on the plane over those waiting humans.