Bruce Dickinson Rescues Tourists

09/15/08 2:39pm

by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

The next time you're stranded somewhere without a flight home, call Bruce Dickinson.

The Iron Maiden frontman rescued 221 British tourists who were stranded in Sharm-El-Sheik, Egypt and others who'd been left on the Greek island of Kos after XL Airways ceased operations on Friday.

Dickinson flew the 221 tourists back to Gatwick airport in Crawley, England before catching five hours of sleep and being asked to pick up people that had been left on Kos.

"I was just doing my job," Dickinson told England's Daily Mail after landing at Gatwick on Saturday. "I was called out like a lot of other pilots to help and I was obviously happy to do that.

"Some of the people on the flight were obviously frustrated by the situation they had found themselves in but everyone was pretty good-natured about it all."

This isn't the first time Dickinson has rescued the stranded. During the 2006 Lebanon War, Dickinson flew into the country to retrieve 200 British citizens caught up in the fighting.

Dickinson flies for the Astraeus charter airline, with whom he's been a captain for two-and-a-half years. The 50-year-old quit Iron Maiden in 1993 to become an airline pilot, but has since rejoined the metal band that he flies around the world in their own customized plane emblazoned with an image of their mascot Eddie.