San Angelo Singer Serenades Stranded Passengers Aboard Southwest Airlines Jet

A San Angelo singer brought joy to stranded passengers onboard a Southwest Airlines flight delayed for weather in Denver last Friday.

San Angelo’s own Jeska Bailey was returning from a beauty pageant in Reno with her daughter at a stopover in Denver. But thunderstorms delayed the jet’s departure with a full load of passengers on the Denver tarmac.

“There were maybe five parties on the flight coming from the same event, and they knew I sang,” Bailey explained. Soon, Bailey said she found herself ushered up to the front of the 737 and was handed the microphone.

“It wasn’t really a microphone,” Bailey said. “It was a telephone.”

Bailey sang the 1939 hit from movie The Wizard of Oz, music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by E.Y. Harburg, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

And she sang it a cappella.

Bailey said since Denver’s Airport posted the cellphone video on YouTube.com, she has entertained several offers for rights to the video.

The flight was delayed approximately two hours before finally taking off and landing at Dallas Love Field Friday night.

Since many of us missed Bailey’s Southwest Airlines performance, you can catch her again this week when Jeska Bailey and the Platform Souls take the stage July 29 at 7 p.m. at the Concho Pearl, 1605 S. Chadbourne St.

Watch:

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