Pilot Turns Plane Around to Get Grieving Family to Funeral On Time

A Delta pilot performed a random act of kindness to help a family trying to get to their father’s funeral. (Photo: iStock/rypson)

Here’s a story to start the year off right: A Delta pilot made the heartwarming decision to bring a plane back to its gate in order to a pick up a grieving family that was trying to get to a funeral.

Rick Short and his wife, kids, sisters, and mother were traveling from Phoenix to Memphis to say goodbye to Rick’s father, Jay, who had died of lung cancer on December 16. However, the first leg of their flight — from Phoenix to Minneapolis–St. Paul — was so delayed that they arrived at the gate in Minneapolis only two minutes before takeoff time. The jetway was already being pulled back and the plane was headed toward the runway — the gate attendant said it was too late. Even worse, this was the last flight to Memphis that day.

Rick Short told Fox 10: “The lady got on the phone and said there was nothing they could do, that the tower wasn’t going to let them pull back in, and my sisters and mom [were] sitting there in tears and I’m screaming through the glass.”

Related: 7 Times Travel Angels Helped Strangers in Need

His arm-waving worked: The pilot saw the distraught family from the cockpit, and when he learned that they were on their way to their father’s funeral, made his own decision to taxi back and pick them up.

“Pilots Adams and Anderson of flight DL 3955 on December 19, 2015 from MPLS-St Paul to Memphis on Delta Airlines have blessed my family and gave us a gift that no one else could,” Rick’s wife Marcia said.

Related: Pilot Diverts Plane to Save Dog — Internet Goes, ‘Awww!’

Such random acts of kindness are not as rare in the air travel world as you might expect. This year, we’ve read about a pilot who diverted a plane to rescue a dog, another pilot who wrote absence notes for an entire class who missed school because of flight delays, a captain who eased an autistic boy’s nerves, and a stranger who paid for another passenger’s ticket so that she could be with her ailing mom.

Here’s hoping even more travel angels appear in 2016.

WATCH: Hero: This Hotel Manager Saved 300 People During Katrina

Let Yahoo Travel inspire you every day. Hang out with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.