​Pilot turns plane around to help family make funeral

PHOENIX - An Arizona woman and her family made it to her husband's funeral after a pilot, in a rare move, delayed their connecting flight and returned to the gate.

Delta Air Lines confirmed Thursday that Capt. Adam Cohen turned an aircraft at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport around last month after a Phoenix-area family frantically waved at him through airport windows.

Marcia Short and her three adult children were trying to make it to their 56-year-old father's funeral the next morning in Tennessee.

Their first flight from Phoenix, on December 19, was delayed due to a mechanical issue, and as they arrived at the gate in Minneapolis for their connecting flight to Memphis, the skyway was already pulling away from the plane.

Though they were told by an attendant and then a supervisor that there was nothing that could be done, the family continued waving and screaming through the airport windows, pleading for them to not take off.

The pilot then pulled back to the gate.

Delta spokeswoman Elizabeth Wolf says while on-time departures are the priority, the pilot took the situation as an opportunity to make a difference without endangering other passengers.

A pilot for Delta subsidiary Endeavor Air, Cohen will not face any disciplinary action.

The family posted a thank-you on Facebook, saying the pilots "have blessed my family and gave us a gift that no one else could. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts."