(KNSI) — Former St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis was one of 155 people on board a Delta Air Lines flight that aborted its takeoff Wednesday morning due to an open window on the airplane.
The flight, departing from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport was bound for Las Vegas. It was a layover stop for Kleis, who is heading to Arizona to hike the Grand Canyon. He explained to KNSI News what it was like on board.
“We really didn’t notice what was happening other than the fact that it was very abrupt. We were getting ready, and just as we were building up a lot of speed, getting ready to take off, all of a sudden, it was a jolt of braking. Hard braking. I thought that maybe there was another plane landing or there was a bird strike or something.”
He says most people were pretty calm, including the flight crew. “As always, whenever something like that happens, I always look at the flight attendants, and they seemed very calm, sitting in their jump seats.”
After the plane stopped, the pilot immediately addressed the passengers and explained that a window in the cockpit had popped open. Kleis called it very fortunate that it happened “before takeoff, rather than at 35,000 feet.”
He has flown 2.5 million miles with Delta, and this is the first time anything like this has ever happened. “Delta is so safety-conscious. They put a lot of effort into safety, and I’m glad they do. They didn’t just fix the window and put us back on the plane. They put us on another plane almost immediately.”
Kleis praised the crew for their calm demeanor and professionalism and was grateful for how quickly Delta moved. “The crew, the flight attendants, and the pilots were very helpful and already had us all rebooked. I got a text that gave me the new time the next flight was going to take off before I even got off the plane that I was on.”
It’s not clear if Kleis is a gambling man, but if I were in his shoes, I’d slip a few bucks into the first Whales of Cash penny machine I could find.
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