Sometimes when you’re on a plane, the pilot tends to have some kind of “special passenger”‘ on board. Of course, these occurrences are usually meant for passengers who are celebrating their birthday that day, or sometimes it’s a frequent flyer member.

However, this time, the pilot of one of the United Airlines flights at the beginning of the year announced an elderly woman as a special passenger, and the reason why is absolutely touching.

A woman named Michelle and her mom were on board this United Airlines plane. Her mom has actually been inside planes a lot of times, as she worked as a flight attendant for Capital Airlines over sixty years ago.

Captial Airlines merged with United Airlines back in 1961, but this mom quit her job right before the merger and focused on being a stay-at-home mom to raise her three young children.

However, even after all those years, this woman still felt home in the sky – and her daughter wanted to give her a special and fitting surprise.

Michelle was able to arrange something with the captain, who made an announcement on the plane.

“If you were a Capital Airlines stewardess, would you mind raising your hand?” the captain said.

Of course, Michelle knew what was going to happen and managed to record her mom’s reaction with her smartphone.

Right away, her mom looks to her completely surprised, and raises her hand.

“Oh my god,” she says as she can’t believe what the captain just said. The whole plane starts clapping, as the captain says to her that she’s “the greatest mom ever”.

“Greatest mom ever, me? Come off it,” she replies emotionally. “I might cry.”

It’s clear that this elderly woman is overwhelmed by the kind words and the attention she’s gotten from the other passengers.

Moments later, it becomes evidently clear what’s going on. This wasn’t just a random captain – the captain was her son!

In other words, Michelle arranged this beautiful surprise along with her brother. He followed in his dad’s footsteps, as he was a United Airlines pilot too. It seems like being in the air is a family trait here, and he definitely made mom proud.

The captain walks right up to her, gives her a big smooch and a hug while saying he loves her.

Mom was surprised by the whole thing and immediately thought of her late husband when she saw her son in the pilot’s uniform.

“You had the greatest dad ever,” she proudly said. “His father was a pilot”, she explained to passengers near her.

Michelle’s mom knows that her son was a pilot, of course, but it looks like she had no idea that he was piloting this specific flight they were on. Talk about a major surprise!

Luckily, Michelle and her brother all worked this out together brilliantly, which made the surprise so much better.

You can watch mom’s reaction on YouTube, where it has already been seen almost three million times.

“My mom was a Capital Airlines (merged with United Airlines) flight attendant 60 years ago. She left the airlines to raise 3 children – my brother is the oldest and he followed in her footsteps as a United Captain. This week, we surprised her with her very first flight with him as the plane’s captain. It was a great moment for our family!” Michelle wrote as the video caption.

One of the viewers actually worked as a flight attendant herself and knows the man in person!

“I LOVE HIM!!!!! HE is my favorite Captain on United… extremely professional and kind to passengers. When I started out as a flight attendant, he was patient unlike other pilots lol. His mom must be incredibly proud for raising a fine gentleman!! Beautiful video and heartwarming. Thank you for sharing. We need more Captains like him!!! ❤🤗”

This short moment is just absolutely heartwarming to see, be sure to check it out below.

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Source: Michelle A (YouTube)