A father keen to start his holiday to Spain has volunteered to fly a plane from Manchester to Alicante after one of the scheduled pilots didn't appear. As it happens, booked onto row 15 was Michael Bradley, a pilot with the same airline.
Michelle Potts, one of his fellow passengers, shared video on Facebook of Bradley explaining the plan over the tannoy before take-off. He says that he had taken his pilot's license and ID with him on purpose after his wife told him the flight was delayed "because they are minus one captain". At security, he decided to phone the company, "cause I'd like to go on holiday".
38 seconds later, he says, easyJet phoned him back to ask him to fly the plane. "So if you're alright for one of your pilots to look like this today", he concludes, "we'll go to Alicante. How does that sound?". At that point the cabin broke into applause.
Sharing the video on Facebook, Potts wrote that the flight "probably would have been cancelled if it wasn't for him! Legend".
A spokesperson for easyJet thanked Bradley for "going the extra mile". They also noted that he was well-rested, having not flown in the previous four days, and was fully qualified legally to pilot the aircraft.