Human Heart Left Behind Forces Flight to Turn Around
Ryan Boyd December 17, 2018
On Sunday, a Southwest Airlines flight en route to Dallas from Seattle made a U-turn and returned to its point of departure once flight crew realized that a human heart meant to be transported to a medical facility had been left aboard the aircraft.
“We sincerely regret the inconvenience to the customers impacted by the delay,” said a spokesperson for Southwest. “Nothing is more important to us than the safety of our customers and the safe delivery of the precious cargo we transport every day.”
There was a five-hour delay on the flight due to the error, and due to switching planes for the flight due to a separate mechanical issue, and Southwest claimed to be offering a “gesture of goodwill” to passengers affected.
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[Photo: Shutterstock]
I worked in Organ Donation and Transplantation for over 25 yrs. This heart was for valves, not whole transplantation (we took private jets with coolers for those recoveries). It was not a rush to get it to the destination, although I am glad to see SWA recognized the issue.
This story proves SWA has heart!
They did they right thing both by turning around to deliver the heart and by compensating inconvenienced passengers.