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A Delta Air Lines pilot left behind a small but remarkable “time capsule’’ that offers an eerie snapshot of the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The single-page note written by Delta pilot Chris Dennis was just discovered after being tucked away in a crew tray table aboard a plane that had been put in storage in Victorville, Calif., amid the start of coronavirus in the US in March 2020.
“Hey pilots – It’s March 23rd and we just arrived from [Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport],’’ reads Dennis’s letter, which was discovered by fellow First Officer Nick Perez this past June 1, according to the airline’s Web site.
“Very chilling to see so much of our fleet here in the desert,’’ writes the veteran pilot, whose Airbus A321 was soon joined by scores of other Delta aircraft that were being sidelined as the pandemic took hold.
“If you are here to pick it up then the light must be at the end of the tunnel,’’ the pilot says, referring to his mothballed aircraft.
“Amazing how fast it changed,’’ he marveled of the world being turned on its head over the virus. “Have a safe flight bringing it out of storage!”
Dennis, who has 25 years flying experience, thought the jets would be grounded for two weeks — and even that seemed like a shocking amount at the time, he told the site, which called the pilot’s note a “time capsule.’’
“It wasn’t until we were on final approach, headed in for landing, when it hit me,” the Delta pilot recalled of his 2020 trip to the desert airport.
“The [airport] instructions noted to go behind a ‘follow-me vehicle’ that brings you to a parking spot. As we crossed the runway: Delta aircraft. It’s hard to fathom how many aircraft Delta has until you see that many of them parked in one place,” Dennis said.
“When we got in line, it looked like an optical illusion. It just kept going and going. I don’t know how to describe it. It was shocking.’’
He snapped some photos of the indelible scene, which he posted to Facebook at the time — and which are now in the Delta’s Museum.
His colleague Perez, who has nearly five years on the job with Delta, was preparing to help take the airplane out of mothballs on June 1 when a coworker suggested he check the tray table.
Dennis’s note fell out.
“I kept thinking about my mindset now compared to his when he left this note,” Perez told the site of his fellow pilot.
At that time, “we were getting good at landing empty airplanes,’’ he said. “Now, we’re going in the right direction. I’m in good spirits. I’m very optimistic.
“I feel like how I felt in 2017 again — ready to get going.”
Dennis added, “As they get into that airplane, they are going to see the opposite view than I saw.
“There’s going to be an open runway in front of them.’’
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