United Airlines Pilot Scott Wardle said he had to do something for his passengers because they were stuck at the airport for hours. Pizza seemed like a great idea.
BOISE, Idaho — Air Force Veteran and United Airlines pilot Scott Wardle said he loves his job.
“It’s a cool office, and you have a good view,” Wardle said. “You have jobs and then you have jobs, and this is a great job. I like what I do.”
Wardle is based in Boise, but he spends a lot of his time in the friendly skies.
“You get to see different places, take people to different locations, see them go on family vacations,” he said.
In September, one of his flights took a turn.
“Well, it started out like any other day. I was supposed to go to Houston and then from Houston to Phoenix. We never made it there,” Wardle said. “About 45 minutes in, I got a call. We had a medical issue with one of the passengers, he passed out, and we happened to have two medics and a nurse on the airplane to help. But the question was, what am I going to do now?”
Wardle decided to land the plane at the nearest airport, which was in Albuquerque. Over the loudspeaker, he let the passengers know they were going to make an unplanned landing to get the passenger in distress some help.
“We got down, got the plane landed. The paramedics were waiting for us,” he said. “All these people were also getting off the airplane and I told them we are going to have a couple hour delay. But then I found out my flight attendants just timed out; they worked too many hours. That means they can’t go with me on the next flight.”
Wardle said that meant a much longer delay while the passengers waited for a new crew to fly in.
“I made sure to confirm they were on the way with the company, and then I thought, I got to do something with all these people,” he said.
It was dinner time, and the airport food court was not far from closing up shop for the night.
“So, I started exploring some options at that point for what I want to do. I came up with the idea of doing pizza for everyone. It’s an easy thing, most people like pizza,” Wardle said. “I had to do the math. I had 155 people, how many pieces of pizza do I need?”
Wardle then ordered dozens of pizzas, and when they arrived, he even served the pizza to the passengers.
“I had some cheese, some pepperoni, some kind of a meat and a vegetable thing,” he said. “We lined everyone up, and started a buffet right there at the ticket counter to get everyone fed.”
One of his passengers snapped photos of Wardle and all the boxes of pizza, and she posted the story on social media thanking him for his kindness. Those photos quickly went viral.
“I happened to see this picture online and I was like that looks like Albuquerque, pizza, and then I was like, dang, that’s me,” Wardle said. “From there, it just kind of mushroomed out to different people.”
The Pizza Pilot story was picked up all over the nation, and Wardle was even featured on the Today Show. Word got back to Boise fast, including to Wardle’s graduating class at Capital High in Boise. Wardle was the talk of the class of 1984 on Facebook.
“During the 80’s we had a bunch of great people in my class, and we stay in touch,” he said.
He said he also got a lot of calls from friends and family, even his Air Force buddies from around the country.
“I didn’t think it was that big of a deal, I just did my thing,” Wardle said. “Many pilots in our company do this sort of thing, I just happened to get my picture taken.”
United Airlines was really pleased with how well he took care of his passengers that night, and they insisted on reimbursing him for the pizzas.
Wardle said he simply made a bad day a little better for 155 people, and he would do it again.
“I know what it feels like to be stuck in an airport, trust me. We had to do something to show we care,” he said.