Kicker: Flying the extra mile

NICK EICHER, HOST: A little girl from Texas thought she’d lost her best friend forever.

VALENTINA DOMINGUEZ: She has brown hair. She has like my color skin.

and a rainbow shirt. She’s an American Girl doll who belongs to 9-year-old Valentina Dominguez. She’d left the doll behind on a plane thousands of miles from home in Tokyo.

But thanks to a social media post, and a friend of a friend of a friend, an unlikely reunion.

JAMES DANEN: I was glad that I could do something nice for somebody. I like helping people. I mean, that’s what I like doing.

American Airlines pilot James Danen. He flies that route. He lives in Texas. So he was able to make it happen.

Danen picked up the doll from a Turkish Air lost and found and started the nearly 6-thousand-mile trip home.

And when he got there, so was the Dallas TV station WFAA.

DOMINGUEZ: Beatrice! Thank you so much.

DANEN: And I brought you a picture. This is what she looked like looking out the window, going across the North Atlantic.

Valentina hugged her doll and asked the Good Samaritan pilot an important question.

DOMINGUEZ: Was she well behaved on the flight?

DANEN: Very well behaved, yes.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Priorities straight!

EICHER: It’s The World and Everything in It.

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