When is it justified to hold up a flight for the sake of one person? Here are some interesting stories.
 
United Airlines delays flight for man to see dying mother
 

(CNN) -- If Kerry Drake missed his connecting flight, he wouldn't get to the hospital in time to say goodbye to his mother.
 
Drake got the news on the morning of January 24 that his mother, who had been ill for years from rheumatoid arthritis and had been especially sick the last four months, was dying.
 
To get to his mother in Lubbock, Texas, the San Francisco resident booked a United Airlines flight, with only 40 minutes between connecting flights in Houston. When his first flight was delayed, Drake thought he would miss his connecting flight to Lubbock, the last one of the day.
 
Sometimes, airlines go the extra mile
 
He started crying, obviously distraught. The flight attendants brought napkins for his tears, said they would do what they could to help, and most importantly, got his connecting flight information to the captain, he told CNN.
 
When he got off the airport train and was running toward the gate, "I was still like maybe 20 yards away when I heard the gate agent say, 'Mr. Drake, we've been expecting you,'" he said.

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/03/06/travel/united-flight-delay-dying-mother/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

 

 

Pilot holds flight for man going to see dying grandson

 

(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.

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/01/14/southwest.pilot.holds.flight/index.html

 

Tears! Wonderful! Now I know what to do when I'm in danger of missing a connection.  Ooops! I suddenly acquired a wife, ten children and one grandchild on life support. Poor me! HOLD THE PLANE! Puhleasssse!  

(Memo to self: remember to pack an onion!)

From It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World:

 

"lt's our grandmother. She's dying. -Who's dying?"

"Our grandmother is dying and she's sent for us."

"She's in Rosita Beach. She's dying and we're up here."

"She'd like us with her when she goes."

"Otherwise, she won't go."