Jump to content
MalaysianWings - Malaysia's Premier Aviation Portal
Sign in to follow this  
Denny Yen

Pilot delays take-off for grieving man

Recommended Posts

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3350416/Pilot-stops-plane-for-grieving-man.html

By DAN SALES

Published: 13 Jan 2011

 

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 SouthWest 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.

 

The news of the pilot's incredible gesture was revealed by the unnamed passenger's wife in a blog, praising the airline.

 

She wrote what had happened when she learnt what had happened to her son.

 

She said: "After only a couple hours sleep, my husband and I began to make all arrangements to get him to Denver to be with our daughter. He is currently on business in LA and is flying SouthWest.

 

"The ticketing agent was holding back tears throughout the call. I'm actually her step-mother and it was much more important for my husband to be there than for me to be there.

 

"In LAX, the lines to both check a bag and get through security were exceptional. He got to the airport two hours early and was still late getting to his plane.

 

"Every step of the way, he's on the verge of tears and trying to get assistance from both TSA and Southwest employees to get to his plane on time.

 

"When he got there, the pilot of his plane and the ticketing agent both said, "Are you Mark? We held the plane for you and we're so sorry about the loss of your grandson.

 

"My husband was able to take his first deep breath of the day. I don't know any other airline that would have done this."

 

Commenting on the compassion of its employees, a SouthWest spokesperson said the airline was 'proud' of the pilot's behaviour.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

A very compassionate pilot indeed. Kudos to the airlines for having such a pilot.

I am sure this was done not in the name of publicity, but pure human feel.

 

Anyway, we just hope we do not have to go through such a situation, ever.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The daughter's boyfriend on the other hand, in deep ..... poop :nea:

indeed he is..hahaha... :huh:

 

anyway, very touching story..sounds like in the movies :D

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Great Story, heartwarming, touching....but if this happened in an Airline I am familiar with, a few months later the Pilot will be called up to explain the delay, and he will be punished by a KPI chasing Management guy, charging him for willfully delaying a departure. It will lead to an inquiry where the Pilot will be found guilty. Why he did what he did will be treated as mitigation.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Great Story, heartwarming, touching....but if this happened in an Airline I am familiar with, a few months later the Pilot will be called up to explain the delay, and he will be punished by a KPI chasing Management guy, charging him for willfully delaying a departure. It will lead to an inquiry where the Pilot will be found guilty. Why he did what he did will be treated as mitigation.

 

Not to worry. The pilot will just show the "KPI chasing Management guy" his middle finger and move on to another airline that's willing to pay him big bucks.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

In defense of "KPI chasing management guy", although this is an extreme case where it should be allowed and forgiven, there should not be precedence of pilots waiting on passengers due to any sad story they may hear. OTP is a primary problem for all airlines and it shouldn't be taken lightly.

 

The delay that allowed Mark to see Caden Rodgers for the last time, may possibly cause xxx amount of people to miss seeing their loved ones for the last time, due to consequential delays. Difference is we dont read about it.

 

plus, you'd be surprised at how much lies a person will tell to get an aircraft to wait, get an upgrade, get free excess baggage allowance, etc all in their favour.

Edited by N Azman

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Is it me or was it just purely lack of journalism skills on the part of the journalist? I found it too much "he" and "she" to work through and a lot of sentences is just jumping to the corners too quickly? Most of the time I couldn't even work out who is who and suddenly the "he" became a "she". Tsk tsk tsk...

 

What does this following sentence suppose to mean? <_>

 

"The man had been rushing to visit Caden Rodgers, two, after he was reportedly critically injured by his daughter's boyfriend."

Edited by S V Choong

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Is it me or was it just purely lack of journalism skills on the part of the journalist? I found it too much "he" and "she" to work through and a lot of sentences is just jumping to the corners too quickly? Most of the time I couldn't even work out who is who and suddenly the "he" became a "she". Tsk tsk tsk...

 

What does this following sentence suppose to mean? <_>

 

"The man had been rushing to visit Caden Rodgers, two, after he was reportedly critically injured by his daughter's boyfriend."

 

You expect good journalism from The Sun? It's like expecting Harian Metro to display on its front page a thought provoking story about the effects of the Egypt riots!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

the baby?

That's one of the possibility but for someone who does not know the background of this case, just a lot of he/she to work through. ;)

 

You expect good journalism from The Sun? It's like expecting Harian Metro to display on its front page a thought provoking story about the effects of the Egypt riots!

;)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Sometimes hop around flights like AK were seen as cruel and pretty poor on time management.

Where one passenger was late for just one minute, the door is closed and the aircraft left without him. (after repeated calling on the PA system).

 

For those passengers who are not familiar with the running of such airlines, they have only one thing to remember and understand. Time is money. Every time the aircraft sits on the tarmac and not doing its job of transporting folks to their destinations it will cost the companies thousands of RM every minute. Any late departure will mean the aircraft would need to burn more fuel to catch up with the schedule or risk having other passengers missing their connection flights, or having the need to queue longer in air for a landing window. And of course bad publicities.

 

No fringe flights very much dependent on its fleets to make each flights as close to the schedule as possible, that means also having a shorter turn-around on each of its destinations.

 

That perhaps why AK pilots stabilises its approach much later and lower height than MH pilots.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Sign in to follow this  

×
×
  • Create New...