Skip to main content

Delta Pilots Turn Plane Around To Pick Up Passengers Traveling To Funeral

By
(Quinn Dombrowski)

For the most part, when a gate agent closes the door to a plane, that’s it, you’re out of luck. But that wasn’t the case for a family traveling to a funeral via Delta Air Lines earlier this month. The pilots of the plane, which had already pulled away from the gate, returned to pick up the grieving passengers. 

Tucson News Now reports that the show of compassion took place at the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport in mid-December when a delay caused a family traveling to their father’s funeral in Tennessee to miss boarding their flight by just seconds.

The father, who passed away earlier in the month, had asked to be buried in Tennessee. To follow through with his wishes, the family planned the Tennessee funeral from their home in Arizona.

They booked a flight for the day before the planned funeral and things were going smoothly until they ended up sitting on the plane in Arizona for an hour after their planned takeoff.

The delay led the family to frantically race to their connecting gate at the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport.

“The delay gave us seven minutes to get to the gate,” the mother says. “With only two minutes to spare, we got to the gate and the attendant was not at the podium. The sky way was pulling away from the plane.”

The woman and her children began waving at the pilot of the plane and the ground crew in hopes of getting their attention.

“We are pleading for them to not take off,” she says. “The attendant came out of the sky way and said there was nothing she could do, as the door had already been closed. We continued to plead. If we did not get on that flight, we would miss the funeral. We had to get to Memphis.”

While the woman and her son continued to wave down the pilots, and her daughters cried, the gate agent called her supervisor, who also said there was nothing they could do.

Instead, they offered to put the family on another flight to Atlanta. From there they could drive to Tennessee, but they would still likely miss the funeral.

“My son still waving his arms and pleading with the pilot through the floor to ceiling windows. I was crying and attempting to console my girls when the phone rang,” the woman said. “The pilot was pulling back to the gate to let us board the plane.”

While the family isn’t sure why the pilots chose to come back to the gate, or if they were aware of the family’s need for travel, they’re grateful either way.

“These pilots did not have to pull back to the gate,” the mother says. “Pilots Adams and Anderson of flight DL 3955 on Dec. 19 from [Minneapolis/St. Paul] to Memphis on Delta Air Lines have blessed my family and gave us a gift that no one else could. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts and may you both be blessed ten fold.”

Delta pilots turn around to get family to funeral [Tucson News Now]


by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chrysler Deletes Its Dating Apps, Decides To Remain Single For Now

By
They say you can’t have a healthy relationship until you’re happy with yourself. That appears to be the new mantra for Fiat Chrysler: After several attempts to woo General Motors and more recently Volkswagen , the carmaker’s top executive says he plans to ditch his lovelorn ways to concentrate on his company’s bottom line.  Bloomberg reports that CEO Sergio Marchionne has turned his focus to eliminating FCA’s debt rather than eliminating its single status. Marchionne has set a goal of erasing FCA’s debt by 2019, the same year he’s set to retire. To do that, he says the company needs to do a little work on itself. “We need to be very careful that we don’t start unrealistic dreams about consolidation as we are on our way to achieve historically important results and a debt-free position,” Marchionne told investors at the carmaker’s annual meeting in Amsterdam, as reported by Bloomberg. “We are not at a point of time to discuss any alliance.” Yes, you heard that right: The man w...
Post a Comment
Read more

Study Claims 43% Of “Wild” Salmon In Stores & Restaurants Isn’t Wild At All

By
That wild salmon entrée calling to you from the menu at dinner might not be all it’s advertised. In fact a new study released Wednesday found evidence of mislabeling in nearly half of all salmon sold in restaurants and grocery stores.  The study [ PDF ] from international environmental advocacy group, Oceana, analyzed 82 salmon samples from restaurants and grocery stores, finding that 43% of the products were mislabeled. DNA testing confirmed that 69% of the mislabeled product consisted of farmed Atlantic salmon being sold as wild-caught product. According to the report, consumers satisfying their salmon craving in restaurants are misled about 67% of the time, while those who buy their seafood in a grocery store are misled 20% of the time. “Americans might love salmon, but as our study reveals, they may be falling victim to a bait and switch,” Beth Lowell, senior campaign director at Oceana, said . “When consumers opt for wild-caught U.S. salmon, they don’t expect to get a far...
Post a Comment
Read more

Introduction to Biology (IX Biology Notes Chapter 01)

By
Science: Our universe operates under certain principles. For understanding of these principles, the experiments are done and observations are made; on the basis of which logical conclusions are drawn. Such a study is called "Science". In brief science is the knowledge based on experiments and observations. Biology: The Scientific study of living organisms is called Biology. The word biology is derived from two Greek words "bios" meaning life and "logos" meaning thought, discourse, reasoning or study. It means that all aspects of life and every type of living organism are discussed in biology. Branches of Biology: Biology is divided into following branches: Morphology The study of form and structure of living organisms is called morphology. It can be further divided into following two parts: 1. The study of external parts of living organism is called external morphology. 2. The study of internal parts of living organism is calle...
Post a Comment
Read more