Thankfully, there are people like Shelia Fedrick in the world who can pick up on signs and signals that the rest of us might overlook. Her observations, and the action she took, saved a young girl from a terrible situation, and it's not a stretch to call her a hero for it.
Veteran flight attendant Shelia Fedrick is being hailed as a hero after saving a young girl from a terrifying ordeal in an incident that has changed how flight attendants are trained.
On an Alaska Airlines flight from Seattle to San Francisco in 2011, Shelia noticed a girl of about 14 or 15 travelling with an older, well dressed man, and alarm bells started going off in her head as signals piled up.
"He was well dressed, that's what kind of got me because why is he well dressed and she is looking disheveled and out of sorts?" she told WTSP.
Shelia noticed that unlike the older man she was with, this girl had greasy, unkempt hair and looked like she "had been through hell." When she tried to talk to the girl, the man would get defensive and answer for her. The girl wouldn't even look at her. Shelia knew she had to take a chance to help the girl.
Under her breath, she told the girl to go to the bathroom, where she had stuck a note on the mirror. The girl went and, when Shelia retrieved the note, she saw that the girl had written asking for help.
Shelia immediately notified the pilot, who informed ground control in San Francisco. When they landed, police were waiting to arrest the man.
Shelia's training and instincts saved a girl from being a victim of human trafficking that day, and quite possibly many others since then. Since that flight, Shelia and the girl have remained in contact, and she's now in college.
The signs she noticed on that flight have become part of flight attendant training, and the impact has been noticeable. The Florida Department of Children and Families received 54 percent more reports of similar situations over the previous year.
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