Southwest Pilot Holds Plane For Murdered Child's Family

[EWR_FO]

EWR FO

This problem didn't happen until recently. I retired 7 years ago landing at the most demanding airports and feel from what I have read that things have changed in that time. It is sad. I hope pilots will not let automation take them out of the loop in flying the aircraft. An event will happen some day that will require a manual approach and landing and I hope somebody can do it. It isn't that hard but somebody has to know how to do it.

It's got nothing to do with automation and everything to do with mindset or lack thereof. There are way too many guys sitting in left seats, industry-wide, that are afraid of their own shadows.

 

[bubbers44]

Guys in the left seat afraid of their shadows? What airline is that happening in? I don't think it is a problem in the majors because most of them are seasoned pilots. All of the FO's could be captains.

 

[chqflyer]

hiflyin did not turn this into a hate event, but chqflyer lit the match with his "all other airlines would have left them " remark...that was in point of contention...

the guy deserves an atta boy for sure, but don't make this about SWA pilots being holier than thou please....

Poorly worded post on my part. At many other airlines, the info would never have been passed along to the crew. I've seen MANY gate agents truly delight in bringing full grown adults to tears. I sincerely believe any pilot would have a shred of decency to do the right thing in this type of situation.

 

[Flybywire44]

The pilot responded with, “They can’t go anywhere without me and I wasn’t going anywhere without you. Now relax. We’ll get you there. And again, I’m so sorry.”

Super

 

[climbhappy]

chgflyer...cool ...yeah poor communcation abounds and again kudos to the pilot..

 

[freddriver]

Back on topic....Bravo Southwest. You did us all proud.

 

[Tweet-a-Lishus]

Guys, this guy would have held the plane at any airline he worked. It's the attitude of the person, fortunately SWA encourages this kind of behavior.

 

[Mr Wu]

The kudos are misplaced. Any captain would have done the same thing if they had the information. The hero here is the reservations agent that took it onto themselves to pass the information downline and all the people that passed the info on until it got to the captain. Shows what can happen when information doesn't have to cross the Indian Ocean.

 

[hyflyin]

the kudos are misplaced. Any captain would have done the same thing if they had the information. The hero here is the reservations agent that took it onto themselves to pass the information downline and all the people that passed the info on until it got to the captain. Shows what can happen when information doesn't have to cross the indian ocean.

+1....

 

[hyflyin]

Poorly worded post on my part. At many other airlines, the info would never have been passed along to the crew. I've seen MANY gate agents truly delight in bringing full grown adults to tears. I sincerely believe any pilot would have a shred of decency to do the right thing in this type of situation.

No problem Chq, great observation.

H

 

[hyflyin]

hyflyin,

Why do you have to take an act of kindness and turn it into a hate event?

You don't like SWA. Fine. What this guy did was top shelf.

Gup

Where did I say that? In fact, where on FI have I ever said that? Thought so.

My problem is with arrogant folks, such as yourself, who think it's specific to SWA. What have you ever done to improve SWA? Other than get lucky enough to get hired at one of the greatest airlines around? SWA was SWA long before you showed up on property and will be SWA long after your gone.

What he did is "top shelf" and I fully believe that there are many airline employees, regardless of carrier, that would go out of their way to do the right thing given the information.

The great thing about SWA is that they encourage that behavior, and for that, I will give SWA many kudos!!

Enough said.

 

[LittleDeuce]

Holding a Flight

That's why SWA is always going to stay number one. Any other airline would have gone out of their way to intentionally inflict more emotional pain on the guy just for the fun of it.

Top notch effort. I guess there is a shred of humanity left in this business.

There is not a US Airways guy I know that would intentionally inflict emotional pain on a grieving family.

It's ok to be a cheerleader for your airline but I'm sure you just got caught up in the moment.

I'll also give my kudos to the SWA guy.

 

[Tripower455]

Good on that Capt.....


FWIW, I never leave if I know someone is running for the flight, regardless of the circumstances. I just tell the ops agents to put the delay on me, and they let up. I've never heard a word about it, and will continue to do it until I get my peepee slapped by a chief.

 

[aewanabe]

Sad to say, it would be hard to have the same thing happen here at BlueJet. Too many of our agents have been slapped down for delays, and would not have forwarded the info. And the company has spent so long hiring guys that just "go along" and put on the blue gloves, that we have lots of left seat pilots that aren't Captains. Kudos to Southwest for a company culture that allowed and encouraged this to happen.

 

[say again]

The article isn't popping up. Anyone else having the same issue?

 

[Tripower455]

Sad to say, it would be hard to have the same thing happen here at BlueJet. Too many of our agents have been slapped down for delays, and would not have forwarded the info. And the company has spent so long hiring guys that just "go along" and put on the blue gloves, that we have lots of left seat pilots that aren't Captains. Kudos to Southwest for a company culture that allowed and encouraged this to happen.

Our gate agents are usually pushing to leave. They will rarely take a delay voluntarily that they can't blame on someone else. I let them blame me.

The day I can't walk into the CPs office and explain why I didn't leave a mother that was being hassled by the tsA (while her hubby and kids were already on the airplane) on the last flight out of Dodge, or a near misconnect that was our fault, again, on the last flight out of Dodge, is the day I start looking for another career.

 

[hyflyin]

Our gate agents are usually pushing to leave. They will rarely take a delay voluntarily that they can't blame on someone else. I let them blame me.

The day I can't walk into the CPs office and explain why I didn't leave a mother that was being hassled by the tsA (while her hubby and kids were already on the airplane) on the last flight out of Dodge, or a near misconnect that was our fault, again, on the last flight out of Dodge, is the day I start looking for another career.

Amen brother!!

 

[get2flyin]

This industry use to encourage empowerment in employees but now that has been completely taken away by middle managers reporting to Execs who want "on-time" bonuses. We have been told the decision to hold flights for passengers in NO WAY involves the pilots. I have asked gate agents who wanted to close the door 10 prior if everyone was on board, been assured that they were, and then pointed to the people in the terminal window, madly waving to get our attention after arriving on a late inbound. They always respond with, "Well, the flight is already closed". It's always refreshing to fly with a Captain who says, "you can go up and open it, get these people on, and get us out on time or we can argue about it until we're late...but one way or another, those people are getting on". Doing so more often then not results in a call from the Chief Pilot reminding them not to get involved in passenger issues.

When I was at Eagle, a flight attendant's son was murdered on the other side of the country and she received a call in the middle of the night telling her she needed to come ID the body. The company provided her with Positive Space seat first thing in morning and she made the necessary funeral arrangements and returned home to collect her daughter and funeral appropriate clothing. When she contacted her supervisor about getting another set of tickets and they FLAT REFUSED. You get one positive space per event, she was told. She ended up trying a two leg route and got stuck overnight (*she could have made the connect but the AA Agents wanted to get out early and the flight left with open seats). The next morning, she again failed to get out of DFW and caught a cab to DAL to try SWA. The two got to ABQ and ended up being told the flight was full and they would have to get off. Crying, she began to collect her things and was asked by the SWA FA's what was wrong, she told them the circumstance...and...THEY TOLD THEM TO SIT BACK DOWN AND BOUGHT OFF A PAYING PASSENGER SO THEY COULD CONTINUE ON BOARD! She didn't even work for SWA. That says a lot about the employees at SWA and the culture there.

 

[UpNDownGuy]

Sad to say, it would be hard to have the same thing happen here at BlueJet. Too many of our agents have been slapped down for delays, and would not have forwarded the info. And the company has spent so long hiring guys that just "go along" and put on the blue gloves, that we have lots of left seat pilots that aren't Captains. Kudos to Southwest for a company culture that allowed and encouraged this to happen.

I couldn't disagree more. I've been told about these situations many times, for the express purpose of having me delay the flight to help someone out. We do this kind of thing every day.

 

[DeucesWild]

FWIW, I never leave if I know someone is running for the flight, regardless of the circumstances. I just tell the ops agents to put the delay on me, and they let up. I've never heard a word about it, and will continue to do it until I get my peepee slapped by a chief.

Huhh? You hold a flight for the guy running late because he thought he had time for 'one more' at the local airport watering hole, while causing 30 misconnects for the people sitting in the back of your plane?? I would argue that 'never leave if someone is running late' is a good reason to get your peepee slapped by the chief.

With that said, Kudos to the SWA pilot and gate agent for holding in this situation.