Typically when you read news stories about airplane delays, they don’t have happy endings. But when flight attendants and pilots on a recent United Airlines plane found out that a distraught passenger would likely miss his connection flight to see his dying mother one last time, they made sure to do everything in their power to get him where he needed to go. The traveler had found out earlier that morning that his mother’s illness had taken a turn for the worse, and she didn’t have much more time to live.
But when his flight was delayed, and it appeared he wouldn’t make his connection, the captain decided to radio ahead and intentionally have the flight delayed. The ground crew even made sure his baggage arrived on time. He made it to the hospital, and that night he said his mother “had a real moment of coherence, a last rally, although we didn’t know it at the time. It was the last time”. Well done, United Airlines …
