A pilot with Delta Airlines found a message written by a colleague left on a plane that had been stored for over a year due to the COVID-19 lockdown, as reported by CNN. Pilot Chris Dennis wrote the message during his last flight on the aircraft, "Ship 3009," before it was stored on March 23, 2020, at Victorville Airport in California.
In the message left on the dining table in the cockpit, he said, "Hello, pilots, it is March 23, and we just arrived from Minneapolis St. Paul. The sight of our fleet of airplanes in the desert here is chilling. If you are here to get the aircraft out, it means there is light at the end of the tunnel."
He added, "It’s amazing how quickly things have changed. I wish you a safe flight to bring it out of storage." Delta commented on the incident through a post on their Facebook page, stating that at the time, discussions were about a two-week lockdown, so pilot Chris Dennis may have decided to leave a message, not knowing it would remain for 435 days since the aircraft was stored.
Delta said, "Those 57 words, which carried much uncertainty and emotion that we all felt during March 2020, reaffirmed how hopeful he was about the direction we were headed." The post concluded: "Aircraft 'Ship 3009' is now ready to soar in the sky again."
