Posted on 01/15/2011 1:25:31 AM PST by americanophile
(CNN) -- Time was running out, and Mark Dickinson wasn't sure whether he'd get to see his dying 2-year-old grandson one last time. A long line at Los Angeles International Airport's security checkpoint had kept him from getting to his gate on time.
His grandson Caden would be taken off life support in a matter of hours in Denver, Colorado, with or without his grandfather's presence, according to CNN affiliate KABC.
"I was kind of panicking because I was running late, and I really thought I wasn't going to make the flight," Dickinson told KABC.
That's when a pilot from Southwest Airlines stepped up and held the flight at the gate until Dickinson arrived. The pilot was standing by the jetway waiting for him when Dickinson arrived in socks, so rushed that he just grabbed his shoes at security and ran through the terminal.
"I told him, 'Thank you so much. I can't tell you how much I appreciated that.' And he said, 'No problem. They can't leave without me anyway,' " Dickinson told KABC.
Authorities say Dickinson's grandson, Caden Rodgers, suffered a head injury after his mother's boyfriend threw him across the room. The boyfriend reportedly told police he was drunk and high on marijuana at the time. The child later died and the boyfriend has been charged with first-degree murder, according to the Aurora Sentinel.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Those two dangerous words....this makes me cry.
I am seeing/hearing too many stories involving the mother's POS boyfriend and her murdered child.
How wonderful of that pilot!
Indeed.
"I was really panicking because I really didn't think I would make the flight," said Dickinson.
Dickinson arrived at Los Angeles International Airport two hours before his flight, but a long line at security set him back. He said Transportation Security Administration agents were not sympathetic to his situation.
"They were pretty much of the opinion that it didn't matter what my particular situation was. I needed to go like everybody else, so I did," said the grandfather.
In this story, they took his "running late" comment....and it almost seemed like it was his fault.
Figures.
OBAMA RULES
I’ve heard these stories on the news for years, and frankly, when are these women going to learn? I’m not saying the mothers should always be blamed, but they need to be careful who they allow around their children. There are some men who will be accepting of the children, maybe even play a stepfather role, but there are other men who could care less or actually don’t like the children. They like the women, and the children are, to them, an unfortunate part of the package. They need to make sure the men they allow around their children are good men who will accept their children as a part of their lives and who aren’t those that are cheating, getting drunk, using drugs, etc. The worst case scenario is something like what occured in this story. The child winds up dead. Poor little boy. I hope the boyfriend gets life.
The pilot should be commended for allowing that grandfather the opportunity to say goodbye. I believe the little boy is in a better place.
I think drug addicted alcoholics with little or no prospects for legitimate gainful employment are just plain dangerous people and have no business being around children period. In the wild, a momma bear knows better than to let a poppa bear near her baby bear. I think momma bears value their babies lives more than human mommas sometimes.
I fly very frequently and have been through nearly every airport security line in this country multiple times.
I have never had to wait two hours in a security line....sorry. Something does not smell right here.
It's easy to blame the TSA because they are today's bogeyman.
"He said Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents were not sympathetic to his situation."
Where TSA = 0bamacare administrators.
Obviously, this is only a guess, but I sense there is military training behind the man who made the decision to wait in this case.
some of this is hard to believe
I was thinking the same thing.
Better not to assume that the mother’s common interest with the boyfriend isn’t alcohol and marijuana.
ditto. it’s nauseating. poor kid.
Since you fly a lot, you should also know that a last minute booking without boarding docs involves an additional wait snaking through the queue at the check-in counter.
Southwest Airlines +++++
Bump
I also fly frequently and have been through quite a few security lines. I select my business flights for what I want, including avoiding peak crowds, as I imagine you also do. Traveling with my family is different, and I schedule those flights based on entirely different priorities. I have taken well over two hours to get through security in LAX as in this story and at Orlando with my family. Perhaps you're only seeing the lines at the times that a seasoned traveler knows to choose? I blame TSA excesses for events like this because I have seen them in action and they are not always providing the fast, friendly service that we get from private enterprise. [My guess: the grandfather called the airline from the TSA line, possibly well before his flight time, and Southwest called the pilot to let him decide what to do.]
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