5-Year-Old Spots Manual Error, Gets Southwest VIP Tour

William Hines can tell you exactly why airplanes beat cars. "I don't have to walk 7,000 miles," the 5-year-old explained with perfect kindergarten logic.

His love affair with aviation started during tummy time, when he'd study how toy car axles worked. By age five, he'd graduated to studying real pilot manuals.

When a Southwest Airlines pilot named Josh befriended William at Rocky Mountain Metro Airport, he spent two hours walking him through aeronautical charts. Josh even gave William an actual Southwest training manual, the kind pilots use to learn aircraft systems and safety procedures.

That's when William noticed something odd. "I discovered that two terrain monitors did not match," he said. "They did not match at all."

His mom Amber shared the discovery online, never expecting it to reach Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan. But it did, and soon the Hines family was boarding a plane to Dallas for a VIP tour of the airline's training facility.

William met simulator pilots, explored behind-the-scenes operations, and climbed into a real flight simulator. For a kid who watches planes take off and land for fun, it was better than any theme park.

The plot twist? Southwest later confirmed the manual discrepancy wasn't actually an error. But that didn't matter to the airline's leadership, who recognized something more valuable than catching a typo.

Sunny's Take

What William did matters more than whether he was technically right. He read a complex training manual at age five and cared enough to question what he saw.

His mom wasn't surprised. "He's a details guy, and he notices things," Amber said. "He listens to everything, and he really absorbs information."

Southwest could have sent a polite email thanking William for his interest. Instead, they flew his family across the country and treated his curiosity like it mattered because it does.

When asked if he wants to become a pilot someday, William didn't hesitate. "Then I can transport people to a place and not just myself, like 140 people to a place."

That's the thing about nurturing curiosity in kids: you never know where it leads, but it's always worth the flight.