A Delta pilot turned a plane around to pick up a grieving family who missed their connection on the way to their father's funeral. Nicole Wibel and her family were traveling to Tennessee from Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport for Wibel's father's funeral, according to the Palm Beach Post. Wibel's father's last wish was to be buried in his hometown, but Wibel and her family missed the connecting flight in Minneapolis when their flight from Phoenix was 90 minutes delayed.
"I was just crying. I couldn't believe we were going to miss that flight," Wibel said about missing the funeral of her father, Jay Short. Short, a father of three, died on Dec. 16 from lung cancer after being diagnosed five months ago. Wibel was traveling with her mother, brother and sister.
At the gate, the family pleaded with the attendant who stated the plane had already taken off and there was nothing that could be done.
Capt. Adam Cohen, a pilot for Endeavor Air, a division of Delta Airlines, said he could see the desperate family through the airport windows and made a decision to turn the plane around and get the family to their destination.
Cohen risked facing "the censure of his company," ABC's aviation analyst, John Nance, said.
Admitting that helping the family had a huge impact on him and the crew, Cohen's unprecedented decision to turn the plane around - and the attention this act of ultimate kindness has received - has not gone unnoticed with Delta.
"This is something we'll take with us, knowing we made a difference," Cohen said, according to ABC News. "Little moments like this to us are big to these customers and keep them coming back to Delta, but at the end of the day, it also keeps us going."
"This Endeavor Air pilot's decision to return to the gate in this special circumstance is a great reflection of the human touch we want all Delta customers to experience when flying with us," said a Delta spokesperson.
"This [pilot] deserves more praise than my family can give him," Nicole Short wrote in a note to the New York Daily News. "[I] hope others reading this will think twice and spread more kindness around."
