An Alaskan Airlines flight attendant is being heralded as a hero after she rescued a young girl who was being sold as part of a human trafficking ring.
Flight attendant Sheila Fedrick noticed the “disheveled” teenage girl while working on a flight from Seattle to San Francisco. The young lady was being escorted by a neatly-dressed man and the entire situation seemed off, according to Fedrick.
“Something in the back of my mind said something was not right,” she explained. “He was well-dressed. That’s what got me because I thought why is he well-dressed and she is looking all disheveled and out of sorts?”
Her quick thinking led to Fedrick attempting to speak with the passengers. She quickly noticed that the man became nervous and defensive at even the smallest of questions. The girl was not allowed to speak at all when asked questions.
Fedrick left a note for the girl in the plane’s bathroom and convinced the young lady to go to the bathroom. When she found the note she responded with a note of her own that simply read, “I need help.
The quick-thinking flight attendant quickly alerted the plane’s pilots to the situation and they were able to contact the proper authorities. When the pair stepped off the plane the man was arrested.
The girl was quickly sent home at no expense.
“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 and I was like I could have seen these young girls and young boys and didn’t even know,” says Fedrick.
With human trafficking a major issue these days, flight attendants are trained to look for visible signs of a potentially dangerous situation.
Fedrick says she continues to stay in contact with the young girl who has her life on track — all thanks to the quick thinking of a quick-witted flight attendant.
