Gesture Allowed The Mothers Of Three Heroes Who Had Thwarted The Paris Train Attack To Attend Ceremony In Paris

The mothers of the three American citizens who, along with one British citizen thwarted a terrorist attack on a train from Brussels to Paris last week had been invited to attend a ceremony honoring their sons in Paris ... but they had no way to get there.

The Oregonian reports that Doug Perrill, the pilot for Columbia Sportswear CEO Tim Boyle, got wind of the plight of the three moms. He contacted Boyle at 9 o'clock Saturday night to ask if he could fly the trio in the company's corporate jet to Paris. "Would we be willing to fly them in our plane to Paris?" he reportedly asked. "Yeah, we'd be happy to do that," Boyle told his pilot.

Perrill took care of other details, including getting passports for those who did not have them. He also worked his way through the paperwork with the State Department involved in clearing the Dassault Falcon 2000 on a last-minute international flight ... all in about 12 hours.

The brother of one of the men also was given a seat on the plane.

Boyle said that he felt "fortunate to been in the position where we can help these families out. And that's what we did."

It's a story that needs to be retold the next time someone starts complaining about "corporate fatcats and their private jets."

(Falcon 2000 pictured in file photo)

FMI: www.columbia.com