Dad flies easyJet plane from Manchester to Spain after flight delayed due to ‘missing’ pilot
source : www.ladbible.com
Nothing is more guaranteed to put a damper on a family vacation than a delayed flight… except a canceled flight, of course.
In these situations, don’t you just wish you could get on a plane and fly there yourself?
Manchester man Michael Bradley had learned just hours earlier that his flight to Alicante, which he had booked to enjoy a well-deserved holiday with his wife and their young son, had been seriously delayed.
According to passengers on board the flight to Spain, the pilot was ‘missing’.
But as Michael was a licensed easyJet pilot himself, he thought it best to take his professional ID with him to Manchester Airport as there was little chance he would be allowed to fly the plane.
And in an unprecedented move, this absurd proposal finally became reality, after Michael was given permission to fly his fellow passengers to Alicante.
In a video that has since gone viral on social media, the easyJet superhero can be heard telling his fellow holidaymakers on the Tannoy that their long-awaited holiday would indeed go ahead despite major delays as he planned to take them there himself.
“My wife, who is sitting in row 15 with my son, hopefully he is sleeping by now. I have to keep it quiet, otherwise I will be rejected,” Michael can be heard saying to the passengers.
“She turned around, punched me in the back of the head and said, ‘Our flight is delayed by two hours because they have less than one captain for the flight.’
“So just before we went through security I thought, I wonder if this is worth the call, I think it’s because I want to go on holiday.”
He continued: “I called easyJet and said, ‘Hi, I’m standing in the terminal doing nothing. I have my driver’s license with me – on purpose because I got hit in the back of the head at 3am.
‘I have my ID with me and I would really like to go on holiday. If you need a favor, I’m here ready to go.”
“They said ‘we’ll call you back,’” Michael continued. “Thirty-eight seconds later they called me back and said, ‘Please, please, please, with a big icing on the cake, can you fly the plane to Alicante?’”
Michael pointed to his casual attire, but emphasized that he had put on an official pair of pilot shoes “just in case”: “So if you’re okay with one of your pilots looking like this today, we’re going to Alicante.”
His announcement was met with cheers from the passengers.
One mother on the two-hour flight to Spain recorded Michael’s message and later shared it on Facebook to express her sheer surprise.
“It could only happen to me! Going to the airport and our flight is delayed by a few hours…” she wrote on the social media app.
“Then I happened to look at the original time and it changed to the gate closing!! I had to walk through the airport to get to the flight…
‘Go on board and ask the man at the counter what’s going on.
“He said, ‘Oh, your pilot is missing, but a guy on your flight is going to fly the plane’ REALLY CASUALLY!!!
“Luckily the guy was actually a pilot! Without him it probably would have been cancelled! Legend.”
An easyJet spokesperson later told the Manchester Evening News that the flight delay was ‘due to the knock-on effects of the French ATC disruption on Sunday’, which affected the crew and meant they had to rely on standbys .
He said: “We are grateful to one of our pilots who traveled with his family on holiday from Manchester to Alicante on September 2 and volunteered to operate the flight.
“This meant customers could reach their destinations and shows the commitment and dedication of our crew.
“This is fully compliant with regulations as he had his driver’s license and ID with him. Safety is always our top priority.”
LADbible has contacted easyJet for comment.
source : www.ladbible.com
