Robert Fonte
A United Airlines pilot showed incredible kindness to a stranded student by paying for her flight back to school.
United Airlines shared the video on its YouTube page Friday, the day before Father’s Day. The video shows a stranded student, identified only by her first name, Kiana, who is from Hawaii. Kiana’s father was back home about 3,000 miles away on the islands.
Kiana, 19, returning back to school at Pacific University in Oregon when her flight was diverted to Seattle due to bad weather.
“The airline had basically stuck her in a hotel room overnight and had forgotten about her,” Kiana’s father, Dave, said in an interview. “At one point, I was about to go book a flight and go get her myself and by the grace of God, (the pilot, Robert Fonte) came into our lives and helped us out.”
Fonte, based out of Houston, Texas, noticed Kiana crying alongside a TSA agent. Fonte approached Kiana to see if she was OK. When he learned that her flight had been diverted, he was reminded of his own daughter about Kiana’s age. He promptly approached the ticket counter to see if any arrangements could be made.
United Airines doesn’t fly any routes from Seattle to Portland, but Fonte wouldn’t give up that easily: “I told the lobby agent you know what? Just put it on my card,” he said in the United Airlines video. “We’re gonna get Kiana where she needed to be.”
“From dad to dad, there are no words that could express my gratitude towards Robert for what he has done,” Kiana’s father said. The two dads now send each other text messages on occasion and call each other friend.
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