WHAT THIS FLIGHT ATTENDANT DID AFTER SPOTTING A THREAT INSIDE THE FLIGHT WOULD BLOW YOUR MIND!
Sheila Fedrick is a flight attendant by profession. She has been working in this field for ten years but never in that tenure she ever came across a situation like this. There was a girl sitting next to the window and she looked nothing like normal. The young girl made the woman suspicious. She needed to find out who was she and what her purpose was. And when she found out the attendant had her whole life turned upside down.
Sheila Fedrick
Sheila Fedrick has been working as a flight attendant for Alaska Airlines for 10 years now. The 49-year-old stewardess is well known for her devotion to the work. Her positive attitude and affable smile make her personality even more pleasant. Her work involves looking after the needs of passengers on the plane, get them refreshment and maintain a positive attitude around them. On that day of 2011, she was doing the same when she got confronted with something really unusual.
Taking Off
The San Francisco bound flight took off from Seattle with hundreds of passengers on it. As usual, Sheila was attending to the passengers with her welcoming smile. Everything looked perfectly normal. The journey was short termed stretching up to two hours only. However, this short-termed journey was going to make a big change in the passengers’ life.
Underrated Job
The job of a flight attendant is grossly underrated in today’s world. They not only take care of the passenger’s need but also emerges as a bridge connecting passengers and management. Additionally, they have to look after the needs of each and every person on board and make sure they all have a nice journey.
Flying Heroes
There have been a number of incidents of encountering unfavorable circumstances in flights. The reason could be getting hijacked, glitches in types of equipment and many more. And in lots of those cases, the flight attendants have emerged as a hero of the scene. However, this case was entirely different.
Experience Counts
Fedrick has been in this business for a decade and such a long experience really helps her big time in grasping the mood, need and state of mind of any passenger. Likewise, that very day she was taking rounds in the flight to see if anyone needs anything when her eyes captured a peculiar sight. On the very first glance, she understood that something was not right.
Strange Girl
There was a young woman sitting next to the window. To Fedrick, the girl looked far from normal. Strangely, nobody on the flight noticed her weirdness except Fedrick. Was there something really weird about the girl or was it just her assumption? She needed to confirm that.
Doubtful Of Her
The girl had a suspicious appearance. She was wearing shabby clothes and had unkempt hair. Moreover, she was behaving in a strange way as she did not look up for a second. It seemed as she does not belong to a well to do family. But that notion soon got axed when she saw the man sitting beside her.
Striking Difference
On the contrary, the man who seemed her acquaintance was wearing quite expensive clothes. He also looked wealthy. It seemed as if he was a businessman. He looked clean whereas the girl appeared completely disorganized. Was the girl mentally ill or something else was the reason? And most importantly, why nobody else noticed them before her?
No Similarity
The glaring difference between the two had whetted her curiosity. They seemed totally lost whereas it was not difficult to see that the man belonged to a well to do family. Were they family? At this point, she really needed to get an answer to this question. So she paced towards the girl to get a closer look at her.
Not Talking?
One thing more that tickled her suspicion was that the two were not talking to each other at all. Though they were together it did not seem as they shared any relation. Fedrick had never seen anything like this before. Her curiosity was increasing second by second. What relation was the two sharing?
What Is It?
The woman noticed new things about the girl as she begins approaching her seat. The girl was sitting on the seat neighboring window. She kept looking out through the window from the moment she sat on the plane. Her face was bereft of emotions and full of bruises. The girl was laying backward on the seat as if she had no energy left to keep herself up. Was she in some kind of danger or was she herself a source of it?
Need To Talk
Fedrick needed to talk to her. But how was she going to do that? The man was sitting glued to the young lady. In order to find out what was actually going on, she needed to talk to her in alone which seemed impossible for now. It was then an idea clicked her mind.
Plan On The Mind
Well, the idea she had on her mind was quite risky. She knew very well that if she fails to execute it properly she would have to face some serious results. However, she decided to go ahead with it if needed. She walked towards the girl and the man with a racing heart.
Unexpected Response
She decided to interact with the two. It was the best thing she could think of. However, she had another thing on her mind. The man reacted in a surprising manner when she tried to engage with the woman. He tried to stop Fedrick from interacting with her by interrupting her in between. Furthermore, the air hostess noticed something more strange about the girl.
Hesitant
For some strange reason, the girl hesitated from making eye contact with Fedrick when she was talking to her, let alone replying. On the other hand, the man suddenly got defensive on her arrival. The whole thing was getting creepier minute by minute. At that point, she decided to use her another plan.
Keeping An Eye
From there on Fedrick kept her eye on the girl and the man. When she got the chance to talk to her in alone she rushed towards the girl and whispered in her ears requesting her to go to the bathroom. Till then Fedrick did not know how the girl was going to react to her request. What if she herself is voluntarily involved with the man. No doubt. Fedrick was shooting in dark.
Getting Into Plan
Luckily, the girl did go to the bathroom. When the girl stepped into the loo she noticed something very unusual dangling on the window of the plane. On the other hand, Fedrick roaming outside the bathroom was frequently looking towards the bathroom. She had no idea what this step was going to bring the next moment.
The Note
The girl saw a note attached to the window. The paper was not all blank. Something was written on that! When she held the paper in her hand she realized it was a note left by the flight attendant. The note read “Do you need help?” It also had Fedrick’s number written on it. The girl responded to the message.
Something Is Not Right
Fedrick had sensed it! This was an emergency situation and Fedrick did not want to let the man gets a whiff of her plan. Fortunately, the man could not grasp it. However, she was still not sure whether the girl needed help or not.
Shaking Answer
Fedrick got stunned when she saw the note having her answer. The girl indeed needed help. Clearly, she was in danger and was looking for help. That is why when she saw the note she responded immediately. Probably the girl was taken to San Francisco without her approval. But the question was why?
Action Time
After getting the note, Fedrick wasted no time and jumped into action quickly. Firstly, she barged into the pilot cabin and informed the pilot about the girl. Thereafter, the pilot called police from the height of 30,000 feet from the ground. Now the onus was shifted to the San Francisco Police. The police took the matter into their hands and waited for the plane to land.
Arrival Of Police
Instantly, the local police were deployed on the terminal and when the plane landed the man was arrested shortly after. The girl was finally rescued. When Fedrick learned what danger she had rescued the girl from, land swept down her feet.
The Bigger Picture
It was more than what met the eyes! The girl was the victim of human trafficking. Fedrick knew that she is in a problem but she had never expected this to be such a big. The girl was abducted and taken to San Francisco. The teenager would have had her whole life in the dark had Fedrick not helped her in time.
Full Of Bruises
Fedrick explained the condition of the young lady, “The bruises that I saw on her, her appearance, her demeanor. I knew something was just not right. [She] looked like she had been through pure hell.” No doubt, the girl was about to be pushed towards the endless dark.
Lessons Taken
Fedrick also put light on the situation when they fail to ignore such situations. She said “I’ve been a flight attendant for ten years and it’s like I am going all the way back to when I was in training. And I was like, I could have seen these young girls and young boys and didn’t even know. If you see something, say something.”
Woman Trafficking
In 2017 only, about 50,000 women and girls fell victim to human trafficking in the United States. Unfortunately, all of them were trafficked for prostitution. Furthermore, around 2,000 human traffickers were arrested by the US. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. However, only 400 of them were identified.
Following Intuition
Thanks to Fedrick, she listened to her intuition and acted upon that. It was only because of her a young life was saved. Now, the girl is having a brighter future with something positive to look forward to.
Bright Side
The girl now is attending college. It has been more than six years and the two are still in touch with each other. Though the girl looked emotionless at that time she did something that was not expected by Fedrick herself.
Being Thankful
Along with the message, the girl had also taken note of Fedrick’s phone number. The girl must have memorized that. Fedrick observed, “I put my phone number on the note that I left for her and I guess she memorized it, so a few weeks later, she called me.” This is why she rang Fredrick some days after her rescue to show gratitude.
Speaking Up
The attendant has been very vocal about such incidents from thereon. She appeals to other stewardesses to be eyeful of the passengers they attend to. No one knows some of them might be in need of help. According to her apart from taking care of the passengers, an attendant should also pay attention to the appearance of the passengers. As appearance speaks a lot!
Experience
Fedrick explained: “I’ve been a flight attendant for 10 years and it’s like I am going all the way back to when I was in training. She continued “and I was like, I could have seen these young girls and young boys and didn’t even know. If you see something, say something.”
Girl Of Iron
Fedrick also admires the girl for showing courage on the time. Fedrick would not have been able to help her out had the girl herself not came forward asking for help. Fedrick reminisces keeping all the fear aside she “wrote on the note she needed help.”
Signs To Catch
Nancy Rivard, former flight attendant and founder of Airline Ambassadors trains the airline crew to understand the signs a human trafficking victim gives away. The signs include the victim not answering questions, not looking up, feel being controlled. Fedrick has the membership of this training house.
Coming Back
In February 2017, Rivard along with her co-workers made their way to Houston to interact with around 100 flight attendants. It was a training session to teach the crew how to spot signs of human trafficking.
Training
The training stretched for two days in which human trafficking victims opened up about their experiences to flight attendants. The attendants were trained to spot passengers who look nervous, scared, or ashamed. They also check the person accompanying him. Do they look like their parent or relative? If not then this is the time to raise alarm.
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