An airline pilot lives a very exciting life. It is also a very busy life, one that sees them traveling more miles in a year than most of us do in a lifetime. The schedule may be difficult to maintain and it can be rough to be in one city after another but it is a lifestyle that most pilots would not live without. When Brian Lenzen climbed into the cockpit of a 787 for the last time, he was feeling quite nostalgic and just a little bit sad with the fact that his career was coming to an end.
Lenzen had worked for American Airlines for 34 years. It was a good run and now that he was 65 years old, he was preparing to retire. The pilot, from Chaska, Minnesota wasn’t ready to retire, but the age mandated that he would have to do so. Fortunately, he had a good sendoff on his final flight on June 24 to make it all worthwhile.
Brian got to choose his destination for his final flight, along with the crew of his favorite colleagues. He was flying to Dublin and when he arrived, they would go to an Irish pub to celebrate. It turns out that there was more celebrating to do.
When they were returning home, there was a group of Irish singers on board the flight. They were the St. Anthony on the Lake Choir and they found out that it was his last day on the job. They wanted to sing a traditional Irish blessing, so they got permission from a flight attendant to do so. As they were exiting the plane, the pilot was in tears.
American Airlines shared the footage on their Facebook page. They were singing to Brian, bidding him farewell by performing the song, “Until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of His hand.”
It may have been a bittersweet occasion but it was also something amazing to see so many people there to honor him.
“It was just a very special moment,” Brian said. “I’m kind of an emotional guy anyway, and so I got a little tearful realizing that was for me.”
Brian plans on spending plenty of time with his wife and granddaughter but he still has a love of flying. After seeing the sendoff that he just had, however, you will have to admit that he must have been a fantastic pilot.
You can see them singing the traditional Irish blessing in this video:
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[fbvideo link=”https://www.facebook.com/AmericanAirlines/videos/1131792773688638/” width=”800″ height=”450″ onlyvideo=”1″]
Source: Inspire More