Passengers applaud as pilot gives emotional speech on final flight after 43 years

Nearly 18 million watch Delta Airline captain bid farewell to four decades of flying, in emotional video

‘Captain Conrad’ gives tear jerking farewell speech to Delta passengers and cabin crew ( aggiestudd07/YouTube)

A tear jerking farewell speech from a pilot to passengers and cabin crew has gone viral on TikTok.

In the video, “Captain Conrad” informs Delta Airlines passengers that it is his final flight, after four decades of flying.

“Before I go, I just want to ask you a quick question,” the pilot says, “Can I see a show of hands, how many people here were born before 1976?”

Hands go up in the air, to which the pilot says jokingly “Oh we got a lot of old people on this plane. I’m disappointed”.

He then goes on to describe his flying career, with “my first training flight in the Air Force, at the Air Force Academy in Colorado.”

“[And] 43 years later, and eight different aeroplanes, and about 10,000-12,000 flights and 25,000 hours of flying,” he says, “I’m glad to have you here on my last flight.”

Applause breaks out for Captain Conrad at the end of the clip, viewed by almost 18 million views on TikTok after it was shared by author and former American athlete, Lewis Howes, in April.

In a two minute version of the farewell speech, the captain continues by saying “so I feel a little bit emotional. It’s hard to hang up after 45 years of your life”.

“Anyway, in case you’re wondering if we’re going to have a good flight, we are, because I have my wife here,” he adds, to chuckles from passengers, “so this is probably going to be the safest flight you’ve ever been on”.

The original speech was first uploaded to YouTube by account aggiestudd07 in January 2020, with over 2.5 million views on the site.