Delta pilot turns back to get family

While Delta confirmed that it was the pilot's decision alone to go back and retrieve the family, the pilot has been praised for the act of compassion.

The Shorts made it to Tennessee in time to attend their father's funeral.

Their first flight from Phoenix was delayed. The 56-year-old died of lung cancer and his body was flown to Memphis Dec. 19, one day before the Sunday funeral. Their father's funeral was the following morning. "We booked our flight on Delta also to leave Saturday afternoon".

The Short family had experienced a 90-minute flight delay from Phoenix to Minneapolis, which left them with 10 minutes to make their connecting flight to Memphis. "We are pleading for them to not take off", Marcia Short, Jay's wife said. "We continued to plead", Marcia said. "I couldn't believe we were going to miss that flight and we are very, very thankful for those pilots". We've just got something in our eye.

The family made it to Tennessee thanks to the pilot's decision.

"This was not going to work and the plane was still outside the window". He rang the gate and chose to head back to the gate, realising the family were likely to miss the funeral as the Delta Air Lines service was the final flight of the day to Tennessee.

The pilot of a Delta Airlines flight turned the plane around to pick up a Phoenix mom and her children on the way to their dad's funeral.

"These pilots did not have to pull back to the gate", Marcia said.

He turned the plane around and picked the family up.

"I don't know if they (attendants) told the pilot what was going on".

"It meant the world", Short-Wibel said. "They just don't do that".

Short was screaming and waving his hands when the pilot saw them. The plane was on its way to the runway and airport workers told them they wouldn't make it on board, the tower wouldn't let the plane turn around, and there was nothing anyone could do.

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