10/12/2026
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1C2RRs3TAN/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Southwest Captain Bryan Knight felt calm the whole way from Oakland. Then he turned his Boeing 737 into the gate at Dallas Love Field, and it hit him. In the cargo hold, in a flag-draped casket, were his father’s remains.
The last time Bryan had seen his father was at that same airport, in January 1967. He was 5. Air Force pilot Roy Knight Jr. was leaving for the Vietnam War, and to this day Bryan remembers his mother, Patricia, sobbing as he left.
On May 19, 1967, Roy was leading 2 A-1 Skyraiders on a strike mission over northern Laos when anti-aircraft fire brought his plane down. No one saw a parachute, and a search found no trace of him. He was listed as missing, and was promoted to colonel while his family waited. In 1974, the Air Force officially declared him lost.
His son grew up to fly, first in the Air Force and then for Southwest. Teams searched his father’s crash site for years without finding him. Then in 2019, they did, and scientists identified him through his teeth.
When Bryan learned his father was coming home to Dallas, he wrote to his chief pilot and asked to fly him there himself.
On August 8, 2019, Southwest Flight 1220 landed at Love Field. A gate agent announced who was aboard, and the terminal fell silent. Travelers watched from the windows as water cannons saluted the plane, dozens of Southwest employees came out to pay their respects, and an Air Force honor guard carried the colonel to his family.
Bryan said it was an honor he never would have imagined “in a million years.” 2 days later, his father was laid to rest in Texas.
