A Delta pilot and crew soothed the anxiety of passengers stuck on the tarmac at an airport in Tennessee with an order of pizza while the weather cleared over Atlanta's airport.
Delta had hundreds of flights cancelled and delayed on Tuesday because of the bad weather in Atlanta – Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is its major hub – but Khoury Ashooh told London's
Daily Mail that it was all smiles on his flight at McGhee Tyson Airport in Knoxville when pizza arrived, courtesy of the airline.
"We circled in the air for a while then the captain said we were diverting to Knoxville because of storms over the airport in Atlanta," said Ashooh, who was on the flight from Philadelphia to Atlanta with his wife and four-year-old daughter. "Sitting on the tarmac, the captain orders pizza for the whole plane."
The Pizza Hut deliveries were actually courtesy of Delta Airlines, which also threw tarmac pizza parties for some of its other flights delayed,
according to CNN.
"It's part of an effort company-wide when weather disrupts our operation to get food and beverages to delayed customers," said Delta spokesman Morgan Durrant.
Daniel Baker of Flightaware.com said "a meal can go a long way to calming nerves, and it raises the observation that there were far fewer incidents of air rage when airlines gave out food and cocktails for free."
Passengers shared their own photos and thoughts of the Delta pizza party on social media Tuesday.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.