Omaha couple who met as seatmates on a delayed flight fly the same airline again, 30 years on

In October 1996 a flight out of Kansas City was five hours late. Jeff Larson used the wait to pick the seat next to Salesia. They have been together ever since, with six kids, and this week they flew Southwest again to mark it.

20 October 2026

A man in a grey hoodie and dark cap walks beside a smiling woman in a striped top through an airport corridor, lit by overhead lights.
Jeff and Salesia Larson at the airport this week, on their way to the anniversary flight.
Photo: KETV

Jeff and Salesia Larson of Omaha, Nebraska, marked thirty years together this week by getting on a Southwest Airlines flight. It was a Southwest flight that brought them together, KETV NewsWatch 7 reported on Saturday.

October 1996

Jeff was living in Minneapolis. A friend named Rob had bought him a ticket to Phoenix, but it was a standby ticket, so he could only fly where there were empty seats.

“He said Chicago looks full, go to Omaha or Kansas City,” Jeff told the station. He drove more than 400 miles, straight through Omaha, to Kansas City.

The flight was delayed five hours. In the gate area he noticed Salesia.

I noticed her right away because she was this beautiful, cute little redhead.Jeff Larson

Southwest had open seating then, so nobody was assigned a seat. Jeff had a plan. “My plan was to get next to her so that I could sit next to her on the plane, and that’s exactly what happened,” he said.

An old snapshot of a young couple in the mountains: a woman with long red hair in a dark top and a man in a white T-shirt with his arm raised, both smiling.
Jeff and Salesia in the mountains, early on.
Photo: Salesia Larson, via KETV

Three hours in the air

By the time the plane landed in Phoenix, Salesia wanted to see him again. They went on a first date in the city. He wrote her a poem on a napkin, about her smile. She still has it.

“After that day that we spent together, I actually called my mom and said, ‘I found the man I’m going to marry,’” Salesia said.

They changed their flights so they could fly home together. Then another delay stranded Salesia at Kansas City. Jeff was driving back to Minneapolis anyway.

“I said, ‘Why don’t I just drive you home?’ It was kind of on my way, a little bit out of the way, and she’s like, ‘OK!’”

A blizzard then kept him in Omaha, and he stayed at her parents’ house. For six months they visited each other at weekends. Then he packed up his life in Minnesota and moved to Omaha.

An old snapshot of a young man in a white shirt and a young woman with dark hair sitting on a sofa behind two birthday cakes lit with candles.
Two birthday cakes, one sofa, in the first years.
Photo: Salesia Larson, via KETV
A framed wedding photograph: a bride in a white lace gown and veil holding red roses, beside a groom in a black tuxedo and white bow tie, both smiling, candles behind them.
The wedding, two years after the flight.
Photo: Larson family, via KETV

Thirty years

They were engaged a year after that, and married a year later. They have six children and run a painting company.

A family snapshot on a garden path: a mother and father sitting with six young children around them, the youngest a baby on a boy's lap.
The Larsons with all six, some years ago.
Photo: Salesia Larson, via KETV
A man in a cap and a floral shirt sits on a sofa next to a woman with long red hair in a floral blouse, both talking to the camera.
Jeff and Salesia Larson, talking to KETV this week.
Photo: KETV

Their daughter Gracie said the marriage had never been turbulent. “They were always making time for each other and showing us what it was like to really be in love,” she said.

On Thursday the Larsons boarded a Southwest flight to remember how it started. Salesia had one note for the airline.

They should’ve kept that open seating so that people can meet randomly like that.Salesia Larson

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From KETV NewsWatch 7, Omaha, 18 October 2026, “Love at first flight: Omaha couple celebrates 30 years on airline where they first met”. Photographs by the Larson family and KETV.

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