_ Last week, a United Airlines pilot from Colorado was taking time off, relaxing in Maui with his family, when the devastating wildfires hit the island. So, like an off-duty doctor who steps in during an emergency, Capt. Vince Eckelkamp volunteered to fly a plane, helping to get 330 people off the island when another pilot couldn’t make it. Since he was on vacation, Capt. Vince didn’t have his official United uniform with him, so he few wearing a T-shirt, shorts and tennis shoes.
… He and his family were supposed to fly home the day the fires started, and when the power went out at their hotel at 4 AM, they quickly got ready in the dark and hightailed it out of there, noticing “the wind was whipping so fast, shingles were flying off houses” and people were “getting pelted with sand.”
… Downed power, and then the fires, delayed their flight until the next day, and “that’s when it started sinking in to us that this is real. We’re in a place that’s really hurting, in bad shape, right now.” So he texted the captain of his flight, which even the next day was experiencing delay after delay, and said he was available if needed. Which he was.
… When the flight landed in San Francisco before it went on to Denver, Capt. Vince left the cockpit to say goodbye to the passengers as they disembarked. He thought, “I’m in my shorts and tennis shoes, and all I can imagine is they’re getting off the airplane saying: ‘Who is the guy in shorts and tennis shoes saying goodbye to us?”