There I Was . . . Announcing the VIP riding along with us

By John Pinter

Once again, a missive this time by Robert Swain reminded me of the Celebrity’s I’ve had onboard. The first one was when I was a New Hire. The flight attendant came to the cockpit asking “Who is Vaughn Monroe?” That made me feel old since she didn’t know who he was. My favorite song was Ghost Riders in the Sky.

Next was on a pass with my family and Euell Gibbons the health guru was on board. He autographed a Hickory Nut for our young daughter. Another time riding along on a DC-10 we had Muhammad Ali abord who pranced around 1st class then pushing the curtain aside he stood there so everyone in coach could see him. He finally sat down when he realized Aretha Franklin was seated a few rows ahead.

I also flew a charter for Tom Jones (the Welsh singer) to Lubbock Texas. His entourage would make a police officer take a second look. We parked near a chain link fence, with a crowd behind it, and dropped the aft airstairs. I was the flight engineer on a 727 and after everyone but Tom deplaned, I came out of the cockpit, talked to him for a few minutes then followed him down the aft airstairs. When the crowd saw him, they went wild and he started wavering to them, and so did I. I just had to feel what it’s like to be a star.

When I was a DC-10 first officer they preboarded John Elway in first class with his young son. I offered to show them the cockpit before regular passenger boarding began. After they left, the flight attendant came to the cockpit and asked “Did you do that for his autograph?” “No” I told her “He wanted my autograph.”

Another time we had Maureen Reagan riding with us on a DC-10 while her father Ronald Reagan was president. We had so many armed people on board we could have taken over a small South American country.

There are more that I could mention but I need to keep this short enough to publish, and I want to tell you about the announcement mentioned above. I was a new B-727 captain and I’ll start by giving my announcement. “Good evening folks. We have a very special person riding with us this evening. I don’t normally introduce VIP’s since they like their privacy. However, this person is so special I need to acknowledge her. She is my wife and we have been married 28 years today. Like most airline employees we are never home on weekends, holidays and special occasions, and tonight is no different. She is riding with us to Buffalo where we will spend the night, after all home is where the heart is.” Well, the passengers erupted in cheers and clapping. I had Joann stand next to me while they deplaned and they were giving us hugs and congratulations.

As Paul Harvey says,” This is the rest of the story.” The whole crew had dinner that evening and the flight attendants got us balloons, a card, a bottle of champaign autographed by the crew, and decorated our hotel room door with crepe paper and happy anniversary. (I still have the unopened bottle displayed in my bar).

We were going to fly back to Chicago; JoAnn was going to catch a flight to Cleveland and I was going on to finish the sequence. It was a clear day and I was just passing over the Cleveland airport then the flight attendant came up and said my wife heard a muffled explosion and could feel a woosh of air past her legs. Everything was operating fine with no other indications. I thought to myself I could make a high dive and be on the ground in short order. However, the flight attendant came back up and said it was the balloons under the seat bursting.

Could you imagine, if I would have declared an emergency, landed in Cleveland, JoAnn got off, the A/C was OK and I flew back to Chicago with no problems what would happen? I’d still be writing letters even after being retired for 26 years.

One more thing, that was the first trip JoAnn made with me after becoming a captain. When we arrived at ORD they had so many airplanes on the ground we were in a conga line going around the airport until the gate opened. JoAnn got embarrassed for me thinking I was lost until I explained the situation to the passengers.

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May 2026 RUPANews

Retired United                                                                        Pilots Association