A United Airlines pilot made an unlucky “Friday the Thirteenth” situation better with a pizza party after an emergency landing left more than 150 passengers without food.
After the Houston, Texas-bound United flight 2480 departed from San Francisco at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, September 13, a passenger’s medical issue caused the plane to divert to New Mexico’s Albuquerque International Sunport, where it landed at 4:15 p.m., TODAY reported.
The diversion turned into a long delay after certain crew members went over the maximum number of hours per shift allowed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), leading passengers to wait for more flight attendants to arrive before they could resume their trip to Houston.
“The plane just kind of diverted,” passenger Tanya Stamos told the outlet. “Really, you could tell we’re going in for a quick landing.”
“There was a flight coming in from Chicago, like, way later in the evening,” she recalled.
The 153 passengers were given a meal voucher at 7:15 p.m. — hours after they were diverted to New Mexico. On top of that, many people did not get the chance to use the vouchers due to airport restaurants beginning to close.
“The captain goes, ‘Well, just to let you know, this airport is getting ready to close in about 15 minutes,’” Stamos said.
She revealed how the pilot, whose name was not released by the airline, jumped through hoops to feed his hungry passengers on TikTok:
@ladyt98tanya #unitedairlines #pilots #great #greatness #greatpilots #christlike #thankyou #california #sanfrancisco #houston
“Our pilot is absolutely amazing,” the passenger wrote, along with pictures of the captain. “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 made sure all 150 passengers ate before he made himself a plate.”
“We love to see our pilots go above and beyond for our customers when the unexpected happens,” a United spokesperson told TODAY in a statement. “This flight diverted due to a medical concern with a passenger, and we worked to get customers back on their way to Houston quickly.”
The medical event experienced by the passenger is not clear, but the outlet reported that they were transported from the tarmac via ambulance.
“I just thought it was so nice,” Stamos added. “[The pilot] stood there while everybody got pizza and then when one box was empty, he took that box and replaced it with a full pizza.”
The flight made it to its original destination in the early morning hours of Saturday, with Stamos reflecting on the pilot’s kindness in an unsavory situation.
“Everybody always thinks of something negative happening in this world — this world is doomed,” she said. “What I take away from it is that goodness always prevails, you know?”