On Thursday night, Delta flight 4279 from Salt Lake City to St. George, Utah operated by SkyWest, was held on the ground after boarding while waiting for late-arriving connecting passengers.
Passengers report that the captain reported the cause of the delay being a request from their “boss.”
One passenger reports being asked to give up their first class seat for the late-arriving traveler. Passenger Jay Leishman, who had been upgraded, was downgraded for the woman. He said the crew appeared embarrassed and repeatedly apologized.
The flight departed 53 minutes late. Airline staff reportedly told customers on board that the late traveler was the daughter of a SkyWest executive. A passenger who sat in front of her says she’s the daughter of SkyWest CEO Russell Childs.
SkyWest refused to confirm passenger identities and said the flight was held for “more than one passenger.”
Update: SkyWest confirms that he had been upgraded into the seat of a passenger that was part of the group for whom the flight was being held, and that the passenger arrived within 15 minutes of the revised departure time. I surmise that the flight boarded based on its original schedule, and gate tasks like dropping passengers and last minute upgrades, must have been done based on the original planned departure. It remains unclear when the revised departure time of the flight was posted.
Hey @Delta @SkyWestAirlines my daughter is on dl4279 tonight from SLC to SGU and right after boarding the pilot came on and said “my boss told me that we have to wait 40 min for a passenger before we can take off.”
That’s great that you can modify your operations based on…
— Roger Seheult, MD (@RogerSeheult) March 27, 2026
It was NOT the crew. It was the @SkyWestAirlines CEO's daughter. An entire plane was held up for her convenience, including elderly people and the guy next to me, who was trying to get home to care for his sick wife. I was on the flight. The crew was disgusted.
— Paul Brown (@pfbrown86) March 27, 2026
Not sure what you mean by "source," @MKE_NGK? I was on the flight, talked to the crew, sat in front of the guy who was moved out of his seat, and sat immediately in front of the young woman who was seated in his place. I was there.
— Paul Brown (@pfbrown86) March 27, 2026
According to SkyWest,
While we regularly hold flights for late connecting customers if operations allow, the time spent onboard in Salt Lake City awaiting departure of flight 4279 to St. George on Thursday night was lengthier than expected. The flight was delayed 40 minutes for several late connecting customers due to East Coast weather as it was the last flight of the night. We apologize to our customers for their experience.
This reminds me of when Delta CFO, Warren Jenson was accused of getting preferential treatment for his non-rev children over paying passengers. On March 4, 1999, a flight from Atlanta was delayed 24 minutes so three of Jenson’s kids could make the flight – reportedly trumping paid passengers for first class seats. Jenson apologized and agreed to give up his flying privileges for six months. He had served as CFO of NBC and left Delta shortly thereafter for Amazon, spending time also at Electronic Arts, Nielsen and LiveRamp as well.
Interesting corporate culture. Very premium.
“lengthier”. The Comms shop needs a grammar upgrade.
The airline KING wanted his princess daughter to sit on the throne in 1st class.
I am 100% behind downgrading non rev and upgraded pax to accomodate. paid F pax who have to change to a later flight because of the airline making them miss a connection. Should be standard policy, you get it unless we need it. Don’t like it, just stay in coach.
@agree with “with this comes to mind”. If she was on a paid ticket or positive space and flight was held so she could make her connection (for whatever reason) she should get the seat she had and someone that got a gate upgrade it should be downgraded.
Gary – that is the problem with continually trolling X, Reddit or Tik Tok for content (something that happens way too much on this blog). You get one side and form an opinion without all the facts. Just lazy on your part to drive clicks – sad
To all the clueless apologists here, she was a NON-REV. She paid nothing–not even a coach fare.
The flight should not have been held and no one should have been bumped out of their first class seat, whether they paid for it or were upgraded.
@Retired Gambler – I didn’t ‘troll [social media] for content’ the story comes from broadcast media, linked to at the top of the post. Lazy assumption on your part – sad 😉
This would have been a much bigger scandal in Korea. Daughters of the CEO of Korean air caused all sorts of issues: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nut_rage_incident
Lol so we ok with paying executives millions but draw the line at holding a flight a few minutes for their kids.
If the board is okay with it and it doesnt break any FAA regs, who’s to say otherwise?
Not enough info here to make any judgment.
If it was the last flight of the day, I don’t think it’s that uncommon to hold it for a reasonable amount of time. The late arriving pax benefit in not misconnecting & so does the airline in not paying hotel, transport & meal accommodation.
What kind of ticket did the CEO’s daughter have ? Most likely a POSITIVE, CONFIRMED space ticket.
Quite possibly she was originally confirmed on the flight, and the gate released her seat prematurely
without knowing the flight would be held. Her seat was subsequently given away and the gate ‘took it back’ after learning of thew gate hold …
And there were other, pax as well .. . I DO hope the poor downgraded pax survived that grueling 1:08 minute flight SLC – SGU ..
Really ?? All this horror for a lousy 53 minute delay ?? Definitely First (class, lol ) world problems !
I’m not an airline apologist but this is a ‘nothing burger’ ….
“If the board is okay with it and it doesnt break any FAA regs, who’s to say otherwise?” Me. If she is a non-rev treated like a VIP because daddy’s sperm found an egg, then f☆ck her.
I have been on flights that have been delayed due to late arriving passengers from other flights. I consider it part of flying and try to not schedule any connecting flights with a narrow connection window. I doubt that there were any connecting flights at St. George. Sometimes the car rental place will close and that could be a problem. Fortunately I have never had that happen.
A holes hung me out to dry in Detroit coming home from Buffalo on my way home to Minneapolis last December right before Christmas. DTW to MSP left ten minutes early and was aware I was inbound on a delayed regional Delta flight. They did give me $24 in airport for credits to use and put me in a dumpy hotel nearby and on the 6am home Saturday morning. My favorite. They thanked me for my diamond status though.
When you’re part of the Epstein class, you’re allowed to delay flights and inconvenience everyone for your nepo baby.
This is where Tim is supposed to come in a claim ‘umm ackchually… SkyWest isn’t Delta, technically…’
Ppl on this blog are hypocrites. we all know the life of the daughter of a CEO of even “lowly” airline companies is worth more than everyone else on board. Be they surgeon, soldier, or teacher.
It’s called elite status/class and when u have it, u use (and even flaunt) it, but she can’t?
And what’s really messed up is that those flight attendants weren’t being paid for those 53 minutes (they get paid when doors close) and the pilots may have gone into a “rest violation”. All because the CEOs daughter couldn’t be inconvenienced?!?!?
There’s such a simple fix for this. Whenever this happens, offer the downgraded person two free roundtrip first class tickets/credits. Small price to pay for a CEO for his daughter.
Well, it was Childs’s child, not Ed’s, so, maybe we should blame SkyWest, not Delta, after all… a win for Tim!
@1KBrad – the fact she was non-rev isn’t a big issue. If she had positive space confirmed first class she should get the seat. Many years ago I did consulting work for Texas Air under Frank Lorenzo. I flew both Continental and Eastern during that time. As is common, the airlines wanted us to fly on non-rev passes if possible. On Continental our passes were so low in priority one of my associates got bumped for cargo one flight. We had to watch the system and when the flight got 80-90% full (including listed non-revs) we bought a ticket and expensed it since, while we would work with the airline, we weren’t getting stuck or spending the day in airports.
On Eastern, the Vice Chairman gave me positive space first class non-rev passes. Obviously Eastern was in Chapter 11 and they had a lot more space but that was a nice perk. If she has such a pass she has the same rights as a paid first class ticket.
“All animals are equal. Some animals are more equal than others.”
Southwest also hold flight for connection, especially if this is the last of the day. Why should a daughter of a CEO have even worse treatment than anyone else?
Usually this kind of embarrassing behavior is limited to Ed and his BFF, but clearly extends to the rest of the C Suite for Delta Connection partners, too. They should give the SkyWest CEO the annual Michele Burns award on how to destroy the brand with lifetime first class “bump them all” positive-space travel in the face of declining margins. Delta Diamonds aren’t forever…
Would have been fun if that flight had erupted into shouts of “Shame!” worthy of the House of Commons…