Pilot flies 9-year-old’s missing doll 5,880 miles after tracking it down
It is certainly not uncommon to have that one favourite toy as a child, something that seemed to go around with us everywhere we went.
A trip to the shops, walk to the park, or a trip to the grandparents - yep, said toy was of course by our side.
So when that particular toy gets lost when you are out and about, it can make for a rather devastating lost.
Advert
That is exactly what happened to nine-year-old Valentina Dominguez, who lost her American Girl doll named Beatrice on a plane in Tokyo after returning home from a vacation in Bali.
The family had a stopover in the Japanese capital before traveling back to their home in Plano, Texas.
Beatrice was last seen on 20 July, with Valentina's family searching everywhere for lost doll with brown hair.
After searching their home from top to bottom, and also looking through their travel luggage, Beatrice was nowhere to be seen.
"We checked our bags to see if maybe she was in there but we all remembered seeing her on the plane so once we did the search, didn't find her, we called the airline and then we sent an email to the airline looking for her," Rudy Dominguez, Valentina's father told Good Morning America.
But the family were not giving up hope of finding the doll, despite it seemingly being a near impossible task to find the toy at this point.
They spread the word about Beatrice's disappearance on Facebook - a message that eventually reached James Danen, a first officer for American Airlines.
Luckily, Danen is based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, not far from the family's home in Plano.
Danen - who is a regular flyer in and out of Tokyo - jumped out at the opportunity of helping the nine-year-old in her bid to find the missing doll.
"It's my nature. I like helping people ... that's just what I like doing," he told WFAA-TV.
"I was really glad I could do something nice for somebody."
The pilot reached out to Turkish Airlines' lost-and-found at Haneda Airport in Tokyo and was thankfully able to locate the doll.
He took photos with Beatrice in various airports, sending pictures to Valentina as he carried her back home to Texas.
In what is truly wholesome, Danen drove to the Dominguez family home in Plano earlier this week and personally delivered Beatrice to Valentina, along with some Japanese sweets and a map showing where Beatrice has been on her travels.
After being reunited with her doll, Valentina told WFAA-TV: "I felt over the moon. I knew Beatrice was gonna be mad at me but I was happy that I could see her again."
Meanwhile, Rudy spoke to the outlet about Danen and his actions, he said: "I think it's another sign of there's a lot of kindness in this world.
"I'm really happy that Jim was able to help us and thankful for him."
Callum Jones