For nearly three years, my seven year old son had spent almost every waking moment imagining what it would be like to sit in the passenger cabin of a commercial airplane while his own father piloted it through the sky. I secretly bought us two tickets, hid from my husband inside the crowded airport terminal, and boarded his scheduled flight without telling him we were there. We truly believed we were about to give him the surprise of a lifetime. Instead, his unexpected announcement over the cabin speakers exposed a terrible secret that would tear our family apart in seconds.
My husband, Brandon, had worked as a commercial airline pilot for almost nine years. To our young son, Toby, that impressive career made his dad seem like a combination of a real life superhero and a celebrity. Toby knew his father flew huge passenger jets for a living, but he had never actually been aboard a flight Brandon was flying.
