Who knew that Delta Airlines would be such a family-oriented airline? Check out this trending story about a mother-daughter tandem that commanded the skies on a flight from Los Angeles to Atlanta.
It was all thanks to the documentation of Dr. John R. Watret as he was on a flight from Los Angeles to Atlanta back on March 16th. He found out that the flight was being piloted by a mother-daughter team and he knew he needed to see it for himself. The pilots were Captain Wendy Rexon and her co-pilot First Officer Kelly Rexon.
Watret is the chancellor of the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Worldwide Campus. And he decided to stop by the cockpit to take a quick picture of the two women at work. He then decided to post it on Twitter.
“Just flew from LAX to ATL on Delta piloted by this mother-daughter flight crew. Great flight. Inspiring for you women,” wrote Watret in his tweet. He later clarified that he had a typo. He had initially meant to write that it was inspiring for “young” and not “you” women.
The tweet was quick to become viral. In a span of just one night, the tweet garnered more than 42,000 likes and 16,000 retweets. They were also accompanied by a lot of comments by fans and admirers who found the whole story so endearing. It turns out that a lot of people enjoy the idea of a mother and daughter flying a plane together.
“Most excellent,” said amysuds. “Priceless” was the word that Alsharaf_Amna used to describe the picture.
“Wow, now that’s what I call a family day out,” tweeted a user named snookeremporium.
“I think it’s inspiring for everyone because it’s not every time you see parents and their offspring doing great things together,” posted abikeaguda.
Even the official Twitter account of Delta decided to weigh in by writing, “Family flight crew goals!”
And of course, there were a lot of witty comments and wisecracks from people about the trending story.
“That is just the most amazing, wonderful news ever – seriously. My mother and I would never have flown together as crew. We couldn’t even agree on having the radio on/off in the car,” wrote SharonDunn54.
“That’s pretty cool…..question is, was mother holding on to the sides of her seat for dear life when daughter was at the controls? That’s what my parents do when I’m driving anyway…..” tweeted bodz156.
“Mom: “Did you check the flaps? You should know better, young lady” Daughter: ‘I know Mom, I know! You’re always telling me what to do,’” said B_Kelley_ jokingly.
Wetret said in an interview that he had learned that the pilots of the plane were a mother-daughter team when he overheard another passenger asking the flight attendant if her children could take a peek at the flight deck.
“The flight attendant said they could – and that they would be surprised,” Watret recounted of the situation.
When the family went back to their seats, Watret said he had overheard them talking about the fact that it was a mother and daughter who were flying the plane. Naturally, being an aviation nut himself, he found the entire situation so endearing and amazing. He asked if he too could peek into the flight deck.
Apparently, the Rexon family has a very strong aviation gene.
According to reports, Wendy’s father, Bill Brown, is a retired pilot from Northwest Airlines. Her husband, Michael, is also a pilot for American Airlines. And she has another daughter named Kate who happens to be a pilot as well.
