CARBONDALE - It's not every day an American Airlines flight ends its landing announcement with "Go Dawgs!" Then again, it's not every day a 140-passenger, MD 82 aircraft lands at Southern Illinois Airport in Carbondale.

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Photos by Photos by Adam Testa and Daniel Celvi | Audio and production by Adam Testa

American Airlines Flight 9701 from Chicago O'Hare to Carbondale Saturday was almost filled to capacity with Chicagoland area high school students and representatives of Southern Illinois University Carbondale and American Airlines.

The delegation of faculty, staff and airline employees accompanied the students to Aviation Career Day, an annual event sponsored by the university's aviation department and the airline. The plane's pilot, John Sales, and other members of the flight crew were SIUC alumni.

Sales, a 1982 graduate who has worked for American Airlines for 22 years, said he had a great feeling as he returned to Southern Illinois. Though he has participated in the career day before, Saturday was Sales' first time flying the aircraft into Carbondale.

"We spotted Lake Shelbyville and we just stuck our head out the window the rest of the way," he said. "We knew exactly where we were going."

While the more than 120 passengers of Flight 9701 took an aerial tour of the city, a crowd waited at the airport. A group of SIUC aviation students, professors and representatives of the SIU Board of Trustees met the group, and one member of the crowd finally experienced the other side of things.

Mike Ketring, a 1969 SIUC graduate and retired American Airlines pilot, stood at the airport and greeted guests as they arrived. Ketring flew two flights for Aviation Career Day in 2001 and 2003, and now lives in St. Louis. His father and uncle played an integral role in the early stages of the Southern Illinois Airport.

"I thought about it, and I've never actually been on the ground to see the plane land," he said.

Ken Johnson, a 1991 SIUC graduate and Miami-based American Airlines pilot, said he came back to Illinois for the event because "I owe a deal of gratitude to SIU."

When he started at SIUC in 1987, Johnson was on academic probation and wasn't sure where he was headed. With the help of David NewMyer, his adviser at the time and now the chair of the aviation management and flight department at SIUC, Johnson ended up with a Navy scholarship and a place on the university's dean's list.

Johnson remembers taking the Amtrak from Chicago to Carbondale the first time he visited SIUC. The trip took eight and half hours, compared to the 45 minute flight Saturday. Having the American Airlines charter flight to take students to Southern Illinois allows more students to visit campus and learn about the program, he said.

With Aviation Day happening the same weekend as SIUC's Homecoming, the flight to Carbondale and the time spent in town allowed alumni a chance to reminisce. While soaring above the Illinois landscape at 23,000 feet and on the ground at the airport hangar, several alumni could be heard telling stories of getting lost on campus, panty raids and parties, while others laughed.

Several of the alumni also visited the SIU Alumni Association tent at the tailgating area before the football game. Some were disappointed they would not be able to see the game before flying back to Chicago in the afternoon, but all seemed pleased to return to Southern Illinois.

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