Mum goes to Iceland as pilot of daughter's flight

Published3 hours ago

An airline pilot had some special passengers aboard her plane when she flew her daughter, classmates and teachers to Iceland for a school trip.

Marnie Munns, from Cambridge, captained the Jet2 flight from Stansted Airport to Reykjavik with her 17-year-old daughter Lillian and about 30 others from Framlingham College, Suffolk, on board.

She managed to swap a shift to make sure she could be in the cockpit for the flight on Monday.

"It isn't every day you get to go to Iceland, and it certainly isn't every day your mum flies you there," said Lillian.

Munns said it was a "huge privilege" to be at the controls of the Airbus A321neo with her daughter and her fellow pupils on board.

She had initially planned on surprising geography student Lillian on the morning of the flight but had to come clean during a parents' evening.

"When I first told her I was doing it, she couldn't believe that I was actually going to do it and had followed through on it," said Munns.

"Pilots will try to fly their family because it is such a unique experience and it is just a real pleasure, so it was nice to have a really lovely, personal day out."

Lillian's party were joined on the 232-seater's full flight by pupils and staff from other schools embarking on a similar trip.

Her teachers were not the only people excited to learn who the pilot would be.

"What surprised me was the excitement of my fellow crew members when I told them I had the pleasure of flying my daughter and had the whole school trip on board," said Munns.

"The first officer was so excited about it and the crew were fantastic and they found out where she was sitting and it was really nice and quite funny."

Munns has been a captain for 19 years but had never flown her daughter on a commercial flight before.

She said while she tried to do her best on every flight, she did feel added pressure when flying her daughter – especially in making the flight announcements, as Lillian was keen for a "shout-out".

"I was mindful we had many other schools on board, and so I wanted to make sure everyone felt they were special to be on the flight, but of course, my daughter," she said.

"Jet2 gives me an aircraft to be in control of, and it's a big plane, so to do that with my daughter and her school, in style, was quite special."

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