Shelia couldn’t ignore the girl and desperately tried to make eye contact while she served snacks on board the flight.
She conveyed her suspicions to a colleague and the two worked together to distract the man while Shelia tried to get the girl’s attention.
“She finally looked up and the look in her eye was just heartbreaking, so I excused myself to go to the back and I just broke down,” Shelia said in an interview on Good Morning Britain.
She hatched an ingenious plan whereby she put a piece of paper and pencil in one of the plane’s bathroom and then locked it with the aim of unlocking it only for the girl.
While her colleague had the man’s attention Shelia mouthed bathroom then mimed writing. She then waited and hoped the girl understood.
Left a piece of paper and pen in the bathroom
Thankfully the girl excused herself to use the bathroom. The man stayed with her outside the bathroom but Shelia refused to leave the area, keeping a close watch on the man.
“I left a note in one of the bathrooms,” Shelia said. “She wrote back on the note and said, ‘I need help.’”
Shelia alerted the pilot who contacted ground control to organize for authorities to stop the man on landing.
Hear the full story from the hero flight attendant herself in the clip below.
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