Off-duty pilot on vacation flies plane himself after original pilot didn't show up

When an airplane's original pilot failed to show up for work one Monday, an off-duty pilot taking his family on vacation took matters into his own hands, resulting in hours of delays. Michael Bradley, a pilot for EasyJet in the United Kingdom, was set to fly from Manchester to Alicante, Spain, aboard one of the company's planes as a passenger.

Video posted to Facebook by fellow passenger Michelle Potts showed Bradley announcing that he had brought his pilot ID to the airport after hearing of the delay. Unsurprisingly, Bradley was met with applause when he told passengers that he had been given permission to fly the plane and that they would face no further delays.

Potts explained how everything went down on Facebook:

"It could only happen to me!! Get to the airport and our flight is delayed a couple of hours. Then I happen to look at the original time and it changed to gate closing!! Had to leg it across the airport to get on the flight." 

"Get to boarding and asked the guy at the desk what's going on he said 'oh your pilots gone missing but a guy that's going on your flight is going to fly the plane.' Luckily the guy was actually a pilot!! Probably would have been cancelled if it wasn't for him! Legend." 

Bradley can be heard explaining how he received permission to fly in the plane in the video posted by Potts. 

"I phoned up EasyJet and said, 'Hi, I'm standing in the terminal doing nothing.' I have got my license with me," he told the passengers. "'I have got my ID with me and I'd very much like to go on holiday and if you need a favor, I'm standing here ready to go.' 

"They said: 'We'll phone you back.' 38 seconds later they phoned me back and said: 'Please, please pretty please with a big cherry on top, can you fly the airplane to Alicante?'" 

Bradley went on to joke: "So if you're all right for one of your pilots to look like this today, we'll go to Alicante."  

An EasyJet spokesman confirmed the strange series of events to Business Insider. They added that Bradley flying the plane was "fully in line with regulations as he had his flying license and pilot's ID with him."  

EasyJet explained that the original pilot was stuck hours away in Liverpool due to knock-on effects of a French air-traffic-control failure from the day before.

"We are grateful to one of our pilots who was traveling on holiday from Manchester to Alicante ... with his family and volunteered to operate the flight," the spokesperson added. "This meant customers could get to their destination and shows the commitment and dedication of our crew."

This article was originally published on September 9, 2019. It has since been updated.