Pilot proposes to flight attendant girlfriend in front of passengers before take-off
Jon Emerson asked Lauren Gibbs to marry him as part of the pre-flight announcements
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When flight attendant Lauren Gibbs boarded the plane to Detroit to Oklahoma City just before Christmas, she already knew it was a special day.
Gibbs, 23, from Nashville, Tennessee, would be in control of the cabin, while her boyfriend, pilot Jon Emerson, was on the flight deck. Not only that, but it was their anniversary.
But she was in for a surprise when Emerson, 24, made the pre-flight announcements to the cabin.
After informing them about the flight time (2 hours 30 minutes), altitude (36,000 feet) and likelihood of turbulence (“a few light bumps in the air”), Emerson got personal.
Introducing Gibbs to the cabin, he said: “This is a very special day for Lauren and me. It’s our anniversary today and she’s one of our very best flight attendants.”
He went on: “I want this day to be known for the rest of our lives. I want to spend the rest of my life with her.”
He then whipped out an engagement ring, got down on one knee and asked her to marry him.
The answer was an enthusiastic yes, and the whole thing was filmed by an off-duty pilot sitting in first class, whom Emerson had primed in advance.
“I was caught so off guard,” Gibbs told The Independent. “Jon is a really quiet guy, with a very shy personality so for him to do it in front of passengers was so not like him, but for me it was perfect and so thoughtful. We spend almost all of our time together on planes and working together so the timing and place was absolutely perfect.”
The couple – who asked The Independent not to name the airline they work for – met when they were assigned a trip together, and have flown together ever since, turning their long layovers into “mini vacations”.
“The best thing about having a pilot as my significant other is always having someone there after a long day of working,” Gibbs told The Independent. “Layovers can be really boring so always having someone there with me makes the experience so much better.”
Emerson had spent the past three months planning the proposal for their 23 December anniversary, he said.
So will the wedding be onboard a plane? “I think Jon would absolutely love to have planes involved for our wedding,” says Gibbs. “However we will probably have something more quiet and smaller for our friends and family.” The planning has yet to start, though, so there’s always time to change her mind.
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