Airline pilots tend to have a bad reputation for being cheap but this story is about one who is most certainly not. A United Airlines passenger on a flight from San Francisco (SFO) to Houston (IAH) posted a video of the plane’s captain ordering 30 pizzas after the plane had to make an emergency landing.
Tanya Stamos, a 44-year-old United States Navy veteran from Woodlands, Texas and goes by @ladyt98tanya on TikTok wrote: “My flight from SF to Houston today definitely did not go as planned. We had an emergency landing in New Mexico at 4pm due to a medical emergency with a passenger. Prayers for the passenger that was rushed off by the ambulance when we arrived. We then got deplaned and now finally leaving here at close to 11pm. Our pilot is absolutely amazing. He felt so bad for the situation that he ordered 30 pizzas from a local pizza shop and had it delivered right to our gate and then made sure all 150 passengers ate before he made himself a plate.”
@ladyt98tanya #unitedairlines #pilots #great #greatness #greatpilots #christlike #thankyou #california #sanfrancisco #houston ♬ Powerful songs like action movie music – Tansa
You have to love stories like this especially where employees go above and beyond their call of duty. Others agree, as another person commented: “Love that he personally went above & beyond. it’s too bad that United isn’t the one doing this. I love to hear stories of people going above & beyond. kudos to him! 🩷”
Fox News interviewed Stamos, who said the nonstop flight was supposed to arrive in Houston at 7:00 p.m., but there was a medical emergency onboard shortly after takeoff. “Not long into our flight, the captain had come on and asked if there were any health care professionals, [and] if so, please let the flight attendant know and head to the back of the plane.”
Stamos said a man had passed out and collapsed in the bathroom so the pilot made an emergency landing in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to get him medical care.
The flight landed in New Mexico around 3:30 p.m. and allowed medical personnel to attend to the sick passenger. Shortly after the passenger was taken off the plane, Stamos said, “The pilot then gets on and says they are going to refurbish the medical equipment that was used, and we will be departing by 5:00 p.m.”
However, not long after, passengers were asked to exit the plane with no explanation as to why. Turns out the flight attendants timed out so Stamos and her fellow passengers would have to wait for a new flight crew to board the plane.
Around 7:30 p.m. United agents gave passengers a $15 food voucher, but the airport restaurants and food options were closed by then. That’s when the pilot ended up taking matters into his own hands and ordered pizza. “The captain said it was a really disheartening situation, and we may be tired, but he would make sure he personally got our bellies full.”
Stamos said the pilot’s “display that evening is what we should have more of: selfless acts of love, compassion and humanity.”
United then found new flight attendants and the flight was able to take off at 11:00 p.m and arrived in Houston at 2:00 a.m. the next morning. Stamos said the pilot stood at the front of the aircraft upon deplaning in Houston to thank the passengers for being patient and when she exited, she shook his hand and thanked him and everyone behind her did the same.”
A United representative told Fox News Digital that the company “loves to see our pilots going above and beyond for our customers when the unexpected happens.” I hope they either give the pilot a raise or reimburse him for such an act of generosity.
I’ve had to make a few emergency landings in my life, including one in Albuquerque when smoke was detected in the cabin of my American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Fort Lauderdale. It was scary. One of our contributors had a similar experience and wrote a post on how to handle an emergency landing.
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