A father went above and beyond to be with his daughter on Christmas Day by joining her on the multiple trips she had to work as a flight attendant over the holiday.
Hal Vaughan joined his daughter, Pierce Vaughan, who is a flight attendant for Delta Air Lines, on all of her scheduled flights on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day so they could spend the holiday together.
The story was first shared by Mike Levy, a passenger seated next to Hal during one of the flights.
"I had the pleasure of sitting next to Hal on my flight back home," he wrote on Facebook on Monday. "His daughter Pierce was our flight attendant who had to work over Christmas. Hal decided he would spend the holiday with her. So, he is flying on each of her flights today and tomorrow around the country to spend time with his daughter for Christmas. What a fantastic father!"
Levy told BuzzFeed News that Hal booked six flights over the holidays. Hal had already flown from New Orleans to Detroit to Fort Myers, Florida, where he was then seated next to Levy on the way back to Detroit, Levy told BuzzFeed News.
Levy said they were making small talk about the holidays when he asked Hal if he was flying home. Hal responded that his daughter was their flight attendant and that he was joining her on the flights she had to work.
Levy told BuzzFeed News that Hal told him he had a neck injury earlier in the year and spent many months recovering from it.
"He's still moving slow but he can walk on his own," Levy said. "We were talking about how lucky he was to even be here."
This was the first time Hal had flown on one of his daughter's flights, Pierce shared on Facebook.
"I’d just never been without my parents on Christmas, so my mom took one for the team and stayed home with all of the pets so he could take his first trip since the accident with me," Pierce told WXIA of her father.
Pierce and Hal Vaughan didn't immediately return a request for comment, but Pierce shared Levy's original Facebook post, adding a comment that her father making it on every flight was a "Christmas miracle."
"He made it on every flight and even got first class RSW-DTW (Christmas miracle)," she wrote referring to the Southwest Florida International Airport and the Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
Delta Air Lines released a statement calling Hal an "awesome dad."
"We appreciate all of our employees for working during the holidays to serve Delta customers, and love seeing this awesome Dad having the chance to spend Christmas with his daughter — even while crisscrossing the country at 30,000 feet," the statement read.