Southwest Pilot Holds Plane For Murdered Child's Family

[say again]

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.

Agreed.

 

[In The Wind]

Thats awesome. Go SWA. My previous employer had a older male pax die en route to HNL. He was removed by Paramedics and placed in the jet way after the all pax deplaned. They were waiting on the Coroner to arrive. The company elected to board for the next flight with the deceased pax in the jet way with his wife standing next to him in tears. The Captain allowed this to happen. All in the name of "On Time". No one cared. Needless to say thats why this company is out of business.......

 

[aewanabe]

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.

I think we USED to do this kind of thing every day. There are some guys who stand up and use their gonads; I've also seen Ramp ORDER a CA to leave the gate on last flight of the night with revenue mis-connects standing at the window frantically waving. The "culture" is not what it used to be.

 

[bubbers44]

Since a captain can't be ordered off a gate he still can control passengers admitted on the aircraft.

 

[IBNAV8R]

I agree MOST of us would have done the same thing - if we had known. It used to be we all took care of one another and "our" passengers. Now we have to go inside and actually check for ourselves that no one else is trying to get on.

 

[Tripower455]

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.

GMAFB.... That's the best scenario you can come up with to refute my post?

There is a certain amount of judgment required in order to do this job. In your fantasy scenario, I probably would not wait. I have not regretted waiting for a runner every time I've done it. Sh!t happens. You deal with it, and try to take care of the customers as best you can.

If you can't tell the difference between good and bad judgment, then might I suggest a different line of work.

BTW, causing 30 misconnects would show bad judgment.

 

[daedaepilot]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20110116/us_time/httpnewsfeedtimecom20110113pilotwhocaresthemostheartwarmingairlinestoryof2011xidrssfullnationyahoo

wow word travels fast. there's already a story in Time magazine on this. You can't pay for this kind of Advertisement. Kudos to the pilot and Southwest Airlines.

 

[Mickey D]

I've flown with the Captain who held the flight. He really is a great guy who is fun to fly with. I'm sure that if he were on here, he would insist on equal thanks to the employees who passed the word on to him.

 

[DeucesWild]

GMAFB.... That's the best scenario you can come up with to refute my post?

There is a certain amount of judgment required in order to do this job. In your fantasy scenario, I probably would not wait. I have not regretted waiting for a runner every time I've done it. Sh!t happens. You deal with it, and try to take care of the customers as best you can.

If you can't tell the difference between good and bad judgment, then might I suggest a different line of work.

BTW, causing 30 misconnects would show bad judgment.

In your original post, you didn't say you used judgement. On the contrary, you stated that if someone was running late, you held the plane REGARDLESS of the circumstances. Those were your words, not mine.

 

[ableone]

At brand X this type of activity leads to a visit to the chief pilot's office. The captains' authority goes exactly as far as the company he works for says it goes.