Passengers aboard a Delta flight from Atlanta to Los Angeles learned before landing that their plane was carrying a fallen soldier back to his family, according to a report.
The uneventful trip was interrupted about 40 minutes before hitting the tarmac at Los Angeles International Airport when the pilot announced that the uniformed soldiers on board were part of the escort, John E. DiScala wrote on his travel site JohnnyJet.com.
The pilot also warned that they would be greeted by a swarm of fire trucks since the city welcomes fallen military members with a water cannon salute, DiScala wrote.
“The water glistening on the window panes looked like tears,” he wrote.
Soon after touchdown, a military officer stepped on board and addressed the passengers.
“It is a sworn oath to bring home to the family the fallen,” the officer said. “Today, you all did that. You are all escorts, escorts of the heart.”
After people were allowed off the plane, they gathered near a window at the gate facing the jetliner.
“There was a large number of passengers, who are normally in a hurry to get home or make a connection, standing by the window to witness something truly moving,” DiScala wrote.
Suddenly, they watched as the American flag-draped casket was hauled off the plane in front of the soldier’s family. DiScala spotted a woman believed to be the soldier’s mother stepping away from the crowd of relatives huddled in blankets and toward the coffin.
“As soon as I saw her reach out to put her hand on her baby’s casket, I walked away,” he wrote.
