With all the travel drama that unfolded this summer, it’s nice to see some heartwarming news for a change. A TUI flight was about to take off from Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands, and arrive in England. After speaking with flight attendants, the pilot suddenly turned the plane around to go back to the gate.
The reason? He was going to collect a child who had lost her passport and her father. By the time they found it in a duty free bag, it was too late for them to board.
The seven- year- old girl lost track of her passport while browsing through the duty free shops with her family. Upon realizing this at security clearance, the father, Adrian Insley, urged the rest of his family to go on ahead and board. Having to split up caused stress for Insley’s partner, parents and all four of his children.
“I went and spoke to to the security personnel and they told me that I cannot board without a passport,” Insley told ITV. “So I had to send all my family through.”
Insley worried he would have to make arrangements for a temporary passport for his child and find last- minute accommodations in Tenerife. Fortunately, there was no need, thanks to the pilot’s generosity.
If the pilot hadn’t turned the plane around, Adrian and his daughter probably would have been able to “board the next flight to Manchester (England).”
The family’s good fortune didn’t stop there.
Adrian’s mother, Sharon Insley told ITV, “a steward asked if we could tell Adrian to come to the gate, so we could pick him up. I was gobsmacked (astonished) because I have never ever in all my time flying, ever known that they can come back for you. They then apologized saying they would not be able to put Adrian’s luggage back on. We said we do not care, it was amazing, just incredible.”
As it turns out, when the plane returned to the gate, the staff was able to put Adrian’s luggage on board. The family was incredibly grateful and decided to share their story to show that kindness still exists.
In response, a representative for TUI said, “we’re pleased that the Insley family were able to travel on their holiday as planned. This is just another example of the incredible dedication of TUI colleagues who are doing everything they can to get customers away on their holidays.”
