When the Federal Aviation Administration grounded every flight in the country on Friday, passengers on one Southwest Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Orlando got an unexpected consolation prize: a free concert.
Members of the rock bands Hoobastank, Simple Plan, and The Used were all traveling on the same flight, headed to Orlando to perform at the Vans Warped Tour on Saturday. Rather than sit through the delay in silence, the musicians stood up in the aisles and started playing for their fellow travelers.
Video posted to social media shows Hoobastank frontman Doug Robb, in a hoodie, singing the band’s 2004 hit “The Reason” as passengers sang along. He also performed the band’s 2001 song “Crawling in the Dark.”
“I will never recover from this,” Instagram user Jordan Orion wrote while sharing footage of the moment.
Another passenger, Molly Hammons, captured video of the scene with the caption, “When @hoobastank starts preforming The Reason mid flight.” Over the clip, which the band later reposted to its own Instagram Stories, she wrote, “What just happened on my flight??”
Hoobastank wasn’t performing alone. Additional footage shows Simple Plan’s lead singer, Pierre Bouvier, strumming a guitar and singing the band’s 2004 song “Welcome to My Life,” followed by their 2002 hit “I’m Just a Kid.”
“When my childhood dream comes true and Simple Plan performs on my Southwest flight to the Vans Warped Tour,” one passenger wrote over video of the performance.
The Used also joined in, with frontman Bert McCracken leading passengers in a singalong of the band’s 2002 track “The Taste of Ink,” singing, “So here I am, it’s in my hands, it’s in my head, and I’ll savor every moment of this. So here I am, alive at last, and I’ll savor every moment of this.”
The impromptu performances came amid a nationwide ground stop the FAA ordered Friday, citing “extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety” following an issue at air traffic control centers. The agency lifted the ground stop hours later, and flights resumed across the country.
