These Airline Pilots Didn't Follow Protocol for a Grieving Family

Two airline pilots saved the day for one grieving family.

Nicole Short-Wibel, from Phoenix, posted on Facebook the story of her family’s recent trip to the airport on their way to the funeral of her father. In her post, which she shared on behalf of her mother who doesn’t have Facebook, Short-Wibel describes her family’s difficulties in getting to her father’s funeral in Tennessee, including delays that resulted in them arriving too late to board the plane. However, after seeing their distraught pleas, two Delta Airlines pilots pulled the plane back up to the gate to allow them to board.

Read the full post below: 

Please share this so we can get some recognition for some amazing pilots. I am posting this on behalf of my mother as she does not have Facebook. My husband of 32 years passed at age 56 of lung cancer on December 16. His last wish was to be buried with his family in Tennessee. After a long ordeal to get everything taken care of, he was finally on a flight Saturday morning and the funeral was scheduled Sunday December 20th at 2:00 p.m. We booked our flight on Delta also to leave Saturday afternoon. Our 3 children and I sat on the tarmac at Sky Harbor in Phoenix, Arizona, for an hour waiting for the OK to fly due to some damage to the cargo doors. We had a connecting flight to catch in Minneapolis and the delay gave us seven minutes to get to the gate. 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. My son and I were waving our arms at the pilots and the ground crew as my two daughters were crying their eyes out. We were pleading for them to not take off. The attendant came out of the sky way and said there was nothing she could do as the door was already closed. We continued to plead, if we did not get on that flight we would miss the funeral. We had to get to Memphis. She contacted her superior who stated there was nothing they could do but put us on a flight to Atlanta and then we could drive. This was not going to work and the plane was still outside the window. My son was 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 pilot was pulling back to the gate to let us board the plane. Pilots Adams and Anderson of flight DL3955 on December 19th, 2015, from MPLS-St Paul to Memphis. Delta Airlines has 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.‪