5-year-old aviation enthusiast spots discrepancy in Southwest Airlines training manual

ARVADA, Colo. (KUSA) - A 5-year-old Colorado boy who loves airplanes spotted a discrepancy in a Southwest Airlines training manual, impressing airline leadership enough that he earned a tour of the company’s headquarters, an experience he’ll never forget.

William Hines, a pre-kindergarten student at Campbell Early Learning Center, has been obsessed with airplanes from an early age.

“I love flying,” the 5-year-old said. “[Airplanes] get you from place to place a lot faster than a car does. I don’t have to walk 7,000 miles.”

William’s mother, Amber Hines, says his fascination with how things work started almost as soon as he was born.

“He’d be doing tummy time and watching the wheels roll and knowing how the axles work and pulling his cars apart,” Hines said. “He’s very mechanically inclined, so I suppose it was a natural progression to want to know about more fascinating things.”

William’s aviation journey began with trips to Rocky Mountain Metro Airport, where he would watch planes arrive and depart. But his mom says his passion really took off thanks to a connection with a Southwest Airlines pilot named Josh.

In uniform, Josh visited William and spent two hours with him, going over aeronautical charts and talking through the details of commercial aviation. He also brought the 5-year-old a Southwest company training manual – a comprehensive guide covering aircraft systems, safety procedures and operational protocols.

It was while looking over the manual that William noticed something unusual.

“I discovered that two terrain monitors did not match. They did not match at all,” he said, explaining that “one side’s farther and one side’s closer.”

William’s mom elaborated on what he had identified. The 5-year-old had been looking over cockpit layouts and their instrumentation with Josh when he noticed two terrain gauges that appeared different from one another.

“One was very, very zoomed out while the other one was zoomed in,” Hines said. “He was able to identify the fact that these should look the same, but they looked different because one was drastically zoomed out from the other one.”

After William’s mom shared the story online, it reached Southwest Airlines’ CEO Bob Jordan, who invited the 5-year-old and his family to Dallas for a VIP tour of the airline’s training facility.

“So, we went down to headquarters. It was amazing. Everyone there was very, very welcoming, and we definitely had the tour of a lifetime,” Hines said.

During the trip, William got to meet team members, including a simulator pilot named Chris and a staffer named Earl. He also got inside a flight simulator, an experience the family says they will never forget.

For William, flight is more than just a fascination – it’s a calling. When asked if he wanted to become a pilot when he grew up, he did not hesitate.

“Yeah,” he said. “Then, I can transport people to a place and not just myself, like 140 people to a place.”

As for the discrepancy William spotted, Hines says Southwest later clarified that it was not an error in the manual. But what 5-year-old could catch such a small detail? According to his mom, only William.

“What 5-year-old knows that? Newly minted 5-year-old,” Hines said. “But I also know that he’s a details guy, and he notices things. He listens to everything, and he really absorbs information.”