Passengers usually save their applause for when the plane lands, but on a United flight Saturday, they were clapping before the aircraft even left the ground.
That's because United pilot David Whitson boarded Flight 2223 from Houston to Newark, New Jersey, shortly before takeoff to greet one heroic passenger, who happened to be his bone marrow donor.
In a video taken by another passenger, Whitson walks through the cabin to hug passenger Alexandria Reimold, whom he later identifies as his bone marrow donor.
After having piloted a separate flight that landed in Houston, he ran over to Reimold's gate to "say 'hello'" before her flight took off and "share their remarkable story with other travelers over the plane’s PA system," a United Airlines spokesperson said.
As they embraced, Whitson told surrounding passengers that Reimold was a "true hero."
He added that Reimold, who was 22 at the time of her donation eight years ago, had been a better match than his own brother.
"This is the young lady that saved my life," Whitson said as passengers seated around the pair cheered.
Reimold was 18 when she registered as a bone marrow donor while she was a student at Purdue University, but she didn't donate until four years later, a United spokesperson said. She and Whitson were both registered with the National Marrow Donor Program when they matched.
As a result of Reimold's donation, Whitson's bone marrow transplant was performed in 2016. He returned to fly as a pilot for United Airlines in 2018, the airline said.
Whitson and Reimold had met back in 2018 when Whitson's hospital, Baylor Medical Center Dallas, organized their face-to-face meeting, the airline said.
Bone marrow is the soft and spongy liquid tissue in the center of some bones that makes over 200 billion new blood cells every day, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Every year, about 18,000 people learn they have bone marrow diseases that bone marrow transplants or other stem cell transplants could cure.
The Cleveland Clinic says that about 30% of all people who need transplants find matching donors from people in their immediate families but that the other 70% rely on finding matching donors from people other than close family members. Anyone can volunteer to donate bone marrow, but all donors must meet certain health requirements.
