United Airlines holds connecting flight for 20 minutes so man can make it home to say goodbye to his dying mother after first plane is delayed
Kerry Drake got a call on January 24 that his mom, who'd suffered from rheumatoid arthritis for decades, was dying
He got the first flight from San Francisco to Lubbock, Texas, but the first leg was delayed
Flight attendants noticed he was distraught and told the captain who radioed his counterpart on the Houston to Lubbock leg
Staff at Houston waited for Drake to ensure he got to say goodbye
Delayed: Staff delayed the plane for Kerry Drake and not only did the emotional son make it to Lubbock as scheduled, but so did his bags
Airlines aren't usually known for their bleeding hearts.
But United went above and beyond last month, when it delayed a flight to Lubbock, Texas, so a passenger could get home in time to say goodbye to his dying mother.
Kerry Drake got a call from his brother on the morning on January 24, informing him that their mom, Dolores, who'd suffered from rheumatoid arthritis for decades, didn't have long.
So he booked the first flight out of San Fransisco, where he works for the government. But the connection, in Houston, was tight.
'I knew this itinerary was a risk because the stopover in Houston was only about 40 minutes, and my connecting flight was the last flight to Lubbock that day,' Drake told consumer advocate Christopher Elliott. 'But I needed to get there as soon as possible, so I took the risk.'
As fate would have it, his first leg, United flight 667, was delayed half an hour taking off.
The news left the loving son visibly distraught, as he faced the very real possibility that he'd get to Lubbock too late to see his mother before she died.
Noticing Drake in tears, flight attendant Sofia Lares tried to comfort him, bringing him extra napkins in lieu of tissues and vowing to do whatever they could to help him out.
Another flight attendant, Lan Chung, asked Drake what his flight number from Houston to Lubbock was and relayed it to the captain who himself was trying to make up time in the air on Drake's behalf.
But the aircraft touched down after Drake's second leg was due to have left the gate, and the man thought all hope was lost.
'As I was running up to the gate, the gate agent saw me coming and shouted, "Mr. Drake? We've been expecting you",' he said. 'That's when I knew they had conspired to help me. She waved me onto the plane without looking at my boarding pass.'
United Airlines had delayed the plane by around 15 to 20 minutes for him and not only did the emotional son make it to Lubbock as scheduled, but so did his bags. And it was just as well he got that flight.
'Had I missed my flight to Lubbock, I would not have been able to tell my mom goodbye,' Drake told Elliot's blog.
He said she opened her eyes at one point during the night, which he spent by her side in hospital with his brother and father, and seemed to recognized him. But after a final rally at around 4 a.m. Dolores passed away on the morning of January 25.
'When she died, I realized I was wiping away my tears with the extra United napkins that Sofia had given me the day before,' he said.
When he finally had time to think, Drake was overwhelmed by the good will that had gone into getting him on the plane to Lubbock.
'I was overcome with emotion,' he told CNN.
He wrote a letter to United Airlines when he got home to ensure management knew how the flight attendants, pilots and baggage handlers went out of their way to help him.
'Our employees really worked together that day to help this customer,' United spokeswoman Megan McCarthy told CNN.
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