American Airlines Captain Has Unexpected Message for 'Fearful' Passengers

But I went into flight anyway trying not to dwell on it, and that pilot said the exact words I needed to hear—it felt like he was speaking to just me,

Mixon said

Just please know that my first officer and my flight attendants and myself place your safety and responsibility to carry you to Miami to your families, to your vacations...at the highest level. I have no higher call than to carefully and professionally transport you today."

Addressing "passengers who may be fearful about flying, which is certainly understandable ... the pilot said

This trip I'm currently on is supposed to be a fun trip. I'm on vacation.... The night before I'm supposed to leave is when the crash happened,

Mixon told Newsweek

Life is short, hug your people. Whoever is the pilot on AA1044 to MIA, I love you."

A caption accompanying the video sums up the emotion in that moment

The year saw the smallest number of fatal accidents, with no scheduled passenger jets involved in hull loss or fatal accidents,

the report stated

That is so kind of him knowing his heart is probably heavier than it's ever been,

one user on TikTok posted

I honestly couldn’t help but wonder how the crew would be and how their demeanors would be. How will they act? What will they say? That’s actually initially why I pulled my phone out to record, because I knew I wanted to hear what he was going to say,

Mixon added

It’s every pilot's job to inform and take control, but his kindness and his empathy far surpass his job description,

Mixon added

I just want to [say] how thankful I am for him and his words in such a time as this. After such a tragic event, [and] I am someone who doesn’t have an anxious bone in my body, but I found myself facing so much anxiety and so much worry going into my trip (which was the following day),

said Mixon, who recorded the footage

You can be doing everything right, and it still be totally out of your control,

Mixon added

His voice sounds like it broke when he said he had no higher calling. His heart is so so heavy,

one Tiktok user wrote

It's like he felt the fear…I'm glad he spoke up about it,

another user commented

All of our pilots did that yesterday…my pilot took the extra time to brief us yesterday to make sure we were all okay to work and made a beautiful announcement to the passengers once they were on,

wrote another

As an airline employee you train and train and train for every possible worst-case scenario, and hope and pray to God it never happens,

he said

We shouldn’t get ahead of the evidence,

he stressed, ... Ben Leonard reports

Justin Trudeauprime Minister

The industry will shut down in the U.S. and Canada and Mexico within a week, much like we saw it happen during the first phase of the pandemic and the Ambassador Bridge blockade,

said Volpe, who also serves on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Council on Canada-U.S. Relations

Elon Musktesla CEO

The @DOGE software team might be able to help. Will reach out.”

Later in the day, Elon Musk replied to an X post about the outage

It has to be upgraded. That’s in the works. It has been in the works for years. We have to rush this new system online,

he said

We have been short-staffed for too many years and it’s creating so many unsafe situations."

One controller in Southern California wrote

We are already on forced six-day work weeks working overtime every week, ... This leads to controller fatigue very quickly. We need more staffing."

A controller in Northern California said ... with still another controller in Northern California adding