Passenger who had entire plane to himself after 18-hour delay is now in group chat with the crew
An airline passenger who had an entire plane to himself has said he is now in a group chat with the crew.
A video of the ordeal has gone viral, drawing some 46 million views online.
The hilarious incident happened when an American Airlines flight was delayed by 18 hours at Oklahoma City airport.
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TikToker Phil Stringer had decided to just go and hunker down in a Starbucks in the airport and wait for the issue to be resolved.
However, it transpired that he was the only passenger who had had enough patience to actually wait for the flight.
When he turned up to the gate, Phil was surprised that no-one else was waiting, and that the flight was still running.
He said: "I didn't know that I was the only passenger until the very end. I was on the opposite end of the airport working.
"When I get to the gate, there was no one there."
Phil asked if he had missed the boarding time, only to be told: "No, honey. you're the only passenger left in the airport."
He was the only person on board his 6:20am flight from Oklahoma City to Charlotte, North Carolina.
While you might assume that the crew on the flight might not be impressed at having to do the job after nearly having it cancelled, the video shows everyone in good spirits and just having a laugh.
The crew make a show of directly addressing their only passenger while doing the usual pre-flight safety presentations, jokingly saying: "You have to pay attention," when he pans the camera round to the crew behind him.
Another member of the crew shouts 'you’re doing great sweetie' from the back of the plane as her colleague puts on the bright yellow safety vest.
Doing the preflight announcements, a crew member says: “Small personal handheld devices like tablets, cell phones and smart watches all need to be placed in airplane mode at this time sir."
And it seems that it wasn't all for show either, as it now turns out that Phil has joined a group chat with the crew who were on his flight.
He told People: "We exchanged numbers, so I'm friends with all of the crew now.
"We're in a group message together."
Phil said that he had 'apologised to them a dozen times' as they had come back to work for one passenger.
He added: "They gave me all the food and drink that I wanted, we joked around, they came and checked on me 100 times, [we] talked a bunch.
"We were joking about finding a game to play. We tried to see if we had bingo or something. It was just a fun time."
Kit Roberts