An easyJet pilot, Wayne Mott, joked that he would write excuses for students on board who missed school because of the delay, according to Road Warrior Voices.

But 31 of them took him up on his offer surprising the pilot.

The students and their families were scheduled to fly from Cyprus to London-Gatwick Airport on November 1, but due to heavy fog their flight delayed for 20 hours and therefore, children couldn’t go to school the next day.

Joshua Skuse and his family were on the flight and the 8-year-old was worried about missing school the next day.

So, the pilot wrote an adorable letter for him explaining to his teacher why he was going to miss class, as Petersfield Post reported:

Dear Mrs Lee, I am very sorry that Joshua was not at school today. He has been involved in a secret mission in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea at very short notice. We hope this mission will soon be complete and that he will see you bright eyed and bushy tailed on Tuesday morning.

“I wrote all sorts of things to the teachers explaining the absences,” Captain Wayne Mott told the Petersfield Post, “and I wrote a letter to one headteacher for one of the teachers too! They were a really nice bunch of passengers.”