Elliott.org has the incredible story of a grandfather who was trying to race through the airport to get to the hospital to say goodbye to his 3-year old grandson who being taken off life support after being body-slammed by his daughter’s live-in boyfriend. Despite getting to the airport early, long lines were going to make him late for the plane and all the TSA drones couldn’t give a damn. Finally through security, he ran through the airport in his socks, clutching his shoes, before arriving, gasping at the Southwest gate—12 minutes late.

Would he lose the seats his wife had arranged for him over the phone with the ticketing agent, whom she had told about the tragic reason for his trip?

According to the letter written to Elliott by the man’s wife, the gate agent told the grandfather,

“Are you Mark? We held the plane for you and we’re so sorry about the loss of your grandson.” The pilot held the plane that was supposed to take off at 11:50 until 12:02 when my husband got there. As my husband walked down the Jetway with the pilot, he said, “I can’t thank you enough for this.” The pilot responded with, “They can’t go anywhere without me and I wasn’t going anywhere without you. Now relax. We’ll get you there. And again, I’m so sorry.”

Reached for comment, a Southwest airlines rep told Elliot that they were “proud” of what the pilot had done.

Nice to see that in this age of razor thin margins and pretzel bag fees there’s still some human decency left.

Southwest Airlines pilot holds plane for murder victim’s family [Elliott]