Pilots turn packed passenger jet AROUND to get cancer-stricken girl, 11

Hi guys

Well this brought a tear to my eye, regardless of your religious beliefs or thoughts on Israel
If this doesn't move you, you must be a stone.

It's a rare occurance for a plane to return to it's gate after being given the go ahead to taxi for take off but that's exactly what happened for a little girl with cancer

An Israeli airline – with the support of everyone on-board – turned around a plane to pick up an 11-year-old cancer patient. All set to fly to New York August 7 to attend a camp for paediatric cancer patients, Inbar Chomsky, was taken off an El-Al Airlines flight after her passport went missing. Despite a frantic search by airline staff, passengers and the group Chomsky was travelling with, her passport was gone, flight attendants had no choice but to remove the sick girl.

It seems a friend was checking backpacks and the errant passport, she informed the crew

What happened next is virtually unheard of, especially post-9/11. The plane’s pilots immediately stopped the plane, according to Haaretz, and after about 45 minutes were able to convince air traffic control to let them return to the gate to pick Chomsky up, Pinsky wrote. Planes almost never turn around: No one could believe the plane returned to pick up Chomsky Planes almost never turn around: No one could believe the plane returned to pick up Chomsky Still overcoming her disappointment while at the gate with Elad Maimon, program director of the Israeli branch of Chai Lifeline, Chomsky and others watched in disbelief as the plane turned around, said Haaretz. 'The flight attendants could not believe their eyes,' Maimon told the paper. 'They told me they had never seen such a thing.'

And what were the passengers reactions ? Most of us know how frustrating air travel can be.

Passengers cheered and cried, wrote Pinsky, saying they shared ‘Inbar’s happiness and excitement,’ and calling it ‘one of the greatest moments’ he has ever witnessed

Article here

Put's sunshine into my heart

Cody

Great heartwarming story
Thanks Cody
S&F

reply to post by HomerinNC


Genuinely brought a tear to eye Homer

Thanks
Cody

Hell yeah. Go humans.

What's wrong with this story is that this situation is the exception, not the rule.

reply to post by denybedoomed


It's rare but just occasionally

Humans are humane

Cody

Originally posted by DestroyDestroyDestroy
What's wrong with this story is that this situation is the exception, not the rule.

True

But doesn't that make it all the more special ? What's right with this story is that it reminds all of what we should strive for. IMHO

Cody

Great post Cody. I wonder if that could ever happen over here. Its a great upper

For all the useless delays I've suffered if I had to go through one like this just once, it would make me forget all the others. Sadly people wait and/or are inconvenienced for things like "security" all the time, but we rarely get to inconvenience ourselves for something like this...

guess the captain will be reprimanded by the air company..for listning to his heart instade the company's rules

Originally posted by ressiv
guess the captain will be reprimanded by the air company..for listning to his heart instade the company's rules

My cynical self says it was an act on behalf of the company, thus no repercussions.

lovely story! thanks for this thread, nice to see the good in people once in a while!

reply to post by cody599


stripped of all the emotional baggage of " little girl with cancer "is this not rewarding incompetence ?

reply to post by ignorant_ape


I suppose you could look at it like that IA

If an excited little girl asking her friend to hold her passport, and then in the excitement forgetting about is incompetence. Then yes.

I know these Israeli groups quite well and just how tight knit they are, my daughter has just returned from Canada with her youth group. If any one of them were left behind the whole group would have been devastated any Israeli would know that.

The fact the captain was good enough to make the request, and those in charge granted it is IMO a testament to the good of the human spirit.

Incompetence or not it was a kind act that we all could learn from

Cody

Originally posted by ignorant_ape
reply to post by cody599

 

stripped of all the emotional baggage of " little girl with cancer "is this not rewarding incompetence ?

Depends on who you are calling incompetent. The girl for losing her passport? The pilot or company people for turning around?

There was a time when police used to just lend a helping hand to people in the street. Hell, there is a video from the 70s where the cops are just standing around on the block asking the Bikers (Hells Angels -gang-) to be "nicer".

It was kinda like, "Aw shucks why you gotta be like that for?"

And the bikers, kinda just talked out their point to the "pigs" and if I remember correctly they might have even said that allowed, but alas, the cops just let it roll off their shoulders. Maybe I am remembering incorrectly, but I do know that the cops were very calm and just talking it out with them. At no point did they get threatening or aggressive.

Whats the point to your babbling, you ask Boncho...

Well, now-days, one might look at that situation and say the cop was incompetent because he didn't taze the $%#& out of those bikers. Why not beat them with batons, arrest them and charge them for assaulting an officer? Heck, I think they had a camera phone, should of been a Wiretapping Arrest and that anarchist biker should be looking at 20 to life. "You iz totally incompetent Officer Scarbodo."

Yeah, well... Incompetent has a lot of meanings these days. I didn't really see any incompetence here.

I'll keep this post short and to the point: Great story and quite frankly, just what I needed to properly begin my day with here. It doesn't always have to be negative here on ATS, not at all and we shouldn't be so determined to make it so and this is just brilliant. I for one am thankful you posted it. We need this from time to time, so cheers.

reply to post by boncho


I ran the Angels back in my youth,(affiliated not a member) my tattooist is one and a thoroughly nice guy,

He loves hearing stories of days gone by and talking to some one that knew the older characters personally

When ever we rocked up we showed respect to the people around us and seemed to get respect back, nowadays I wonder what would happen in the same situations

But I'm guessing it would be different

Cody

reply to post by Rising Against


Thanks rising

You're correct of course there is good news out there as well to be shared

Thanks for your positive comment

Cody