In a heartwarming story from last week, airline crew and passengers on a Delta flight joined forces to help a retired couple. Kam and Tim Boles were traveling from Atlanta to Cape Town, South Africa, to begin a dream cruise, but after boarding, they realized they were missing a passport. The crew and passengers searched the plane together.
After 20 minutes without luck, the Boles deplaned, believing their trip was over. The crew continued searching, and a flight attendant ran to bring the couple back on board after finding the passport.
The moment was captured by a fellow flier and went viral last week. The poster explained in comments, “They checked in, boarded, but couldn’t find their passport. This was odd because they had it at check-in. They looked everywhere, in all their stuff, in their seats, in the bathroom, all over. People were helping look. Announcements were made from the pilot. But they couldn’t find it. They had copies of their passports, but international laws won’t let them enter Cape Town without their physical passports. So they had to deboard the plane to not risk a 14.5 hour flight to be sent home. Then this awesome flight attendant found it in the depths of their seat!!”
In the end, the retiring pilot made an exception to allow the couple to board—the air bridge had to be reconnected—and ultimately saved their trip. Tim Boles told ABC, “It was neat that, you know, all the flight attendants were just happy to have you on board—and the passengers, the passengers that we thought were going to be upset with us were all cheering for us.”
