An aviation-obsessed boy’s kind gesture has resulted in him being given the “best day of his life.”
Seb was flying from Brisbane to Melbourne with his family for a holiday when he gave the Jetstar crew a homemade thank you card.
He thanked the crew for putting a smile on his face, “as always.”
“From future Captain Seb,” the 11-year-old signed the card, which also had a drawing of a plane.
The sweet message caught the attention of the pilot, Captain Hadrian Zerbe, who invited Seb into the cockpit for a chat as other passengers left the aircraft.
But Captain Zerbe was so touched by Seb’s love for planes, he took it one step further and invited him to come back and visit the Jetstar hangar.
“He said it’s the best day of his life so far,” his mom, Emma, told news.com.au.
Seb confirmed: “Definitely.”
While he loves plane spotting and playing flight simulations, Seb said he had never been so close to a real aircraft.
“When I walked around the plane close up, it was just so big. Bigger than I expected. All the engines were massive,” he replied when asked about the coolest part of the experience.
Seb was not the only one impressed.
Captain Zerbe was blown away by how much the young boy knew about the Airbus A320.
“I’ve certainly never met an 11-year-old who knows so much about aviation and hopefully he’ll be sitting in the flight deck as a pilot someday soon,” the pilot said.
Emma said planes consumed most of her son’s thoughts and had done so long before he could talk and was simply overjoyed every time he heard one flying above.
“If I find something I tend to research it for the rest of the night before I go to bed,” Seb said, who takes his aviation research very seriously.
“He stops mid-play if hears something,” Emma said.
“Every story or picture has always been a plane. At school, it’s always planes that come home. He doesn’t deviate much from that.”
Seb is already planning on getting his recreational pilot license when he turns 16 years old.