Southwest aids Ringwald’s father
Molly Ringwald took to Twitter to thank Southwest Airlines, crediting the airline with saving her 77-year-old father’s life after he suffered a medical emergency midflight.
The “Breakfast Club” star detailed how the airline made an emergency landing so that her father, jazz pianist Bob Ringwald, could receive medical attention. She also expressed her gratitude to a doctor on board, who aided her father until paramedics met the plane on the ground.
“We all love to publicly vent against airlines but today I would like to thank Southwest Airlines and the doctor who happened to be onboard. They emergency landed the plane for my dad. Because of their speed and professionalism, my father’s life was saved. #SouthWest #gratitude,” Ringwald tweeted.
Ringwald did not describe what medical issue her father had. Bob Ringwald is blind and lives in Placerville, near Roseville, where he and his wife, Adele, raised Molly and her two siblings. As a child, Molly Ringwald sometimes performed with her father.
Southwest confirmed in a statement to Fox News that the airline diverted an Austin-bound flight to Albuquerque, New Mexico, so that a passenger could receive medical treatment. It’s not clear what day the flight took place.
Ringwald’s tweet came more than a week after a woman died on a Southwest flight when an engine exploded on a flight from New York to Dallas and she was partially sucked out of the plane.
Ringwald, 50, is known for her roles in John Hughes’ 1980s teen movies “The Breakfast Club,” “Pretty in Pink” and “Sixteen Candles.” She recently wrote an essay for The New Yorker sharing her feelings about how sexual harassment and gender and race were treated in Hughes’ films. She also wrote an essay for The New Yorker in October about facing sexual harassment as an aspiring young actress.
In recent years, she has returned to her childhood roots singing jazz. She sometimes collaborates with her father’s group, the Fulton Street Jazz Band.