Flight Takes Dramatic Turn As Flight Attendant Deciphers A Woman’s Hand Signals
Although not everyone is good at doing it, most people understand that it's generally best to mind your own business. If we get the wrong idea about a situation or discover that our input is neither wanted nor appreciated, it can be a disheartening and embarrassing experience.
However, sometimes there are situations in life we can't ignore. Either our personal histories or a cautionary tale we heard puts us on high alert, and we suddenly feel like we're ignoring a life-or-death situation if we do nothing. While that impulse gripped one flight attendant, she learned the situation was more complex than she thought.
A woman on a flight stood out
When a woman in her late 20s boarded the plane a flight attendant named Sandra was working on, she found it hard not to notice her. That's because she seemed to radiate a nervous energy.
In particular, Sandra noticed that the woman's eyes kept darting around the cabin and nervously scanning her surroundings. Sandra could tell she was on alert but couldn't tell who or what she was afraid of.
She felt the woman was trying to tell her something
As Sandra saw the woman constantly adjust her purse and brush strands of hair from her face, she has filled with an odd feeling of dread. Although she kept trying to focus on her pre-flight checklist, she couldn't stop looking over at the young woman.
As Sandra bit her lip and squinted her eyes at the woman, she thought, "What is it? What are you trying to tell me?" Although the woman wasn't specifically looking at her, it was hard not to see her as vulnerable and needing support.
Sandra had her own reasons to see something wrong
The feeling that filled Sandra's heart took her back to a traumatic experience in her own life that had changed everything in just one day. Although she didn't specify what happened, it was bad enough that she's desperately hoped to forget it ever since.
That made it hard not to project those feelings onto the woman's situation. In turn, that made it hard not to watch her and look for signs that she was in peril. She didn't want the woman to suffer as she had.
She couldn't take her eyes off her
Although the woman stopped her hesitant pacing long enough to choose a seat next to a man, this did nothing to alleviate the flight attendant's concerns. In fact, it now gave them a laser focus.
Although her first question to herself concerned whether the woman knew that man, her mind led her down a path of dark possibilities. Was this man the reason the woman was so nervous? It wasn't a question she could get out of her mind.
A sudden distraction when she was preoccupied
Sandra was so lost in thought that she was completely unprepared when her coworker Harper came up behind her and greeted her. However, when she told Harper she startled her, Sandra played her feelings off as simple daydreaming.
After all, she didn't want to reveal anything she had been thinking about to Harper. That's because the possibility of being wrong in this situation carried consequences she wasn't prepared for. Nonetheless, she wanted to keep an eye on the woman.
A sly attempt to keep watch
When it came time for her and Harper to start serving drinks, Sandra angled for them to cover aisle two. However, she learned that her plan wouldn't work as easily as she thought, as aisle two was already being served by their coworkers Charlotte and Steve.
Naturally, Sandra's request made Harper curious about why she wanted that row. Teasing Sandra, her first assumption was that her colleague saw someone she was attracted to. As she asked mischievously, "Did you spot a cute guy sitting there?"
Harper only grows more convinced
Although Sandra tried to deny what Harper was suggesting and played it off as her considering two her lucky number, Harper wasn't convinced. Naturally, this led her to look down the aisle and she if she could guess who Sandra was interested in.
She also wasn't shy about telling Sandra she didn't buy her deflections, either. As she said, "Well, well. It seems Sandra has a crush she doesn't want me to know about. Alright, if that’s how you want to play it, fine."
Sandra kept watching the pair
Although Sandra didn't end up working the young woman's aisle, she nonetheless kept watching her. Since the man ordered a beer for himself and water for the woman, it was clear they were traveling together. However, that wasn't all she noticed.
Sandra wasn't able to tear herself away from the woman's scared and uncertain expression, which didn't dissipate as she sat with him. This led Sandra to start becoming suspicious of the man.
A profile builds in Sandra's head
Her eyes than drifted to the man, who she observed as being in either his 50s or his late 40s. She noticed that he was well-dressed and groomed, with a dignified look and posture.
However, this dignity and class started to look authoritative to her, as did the way he carried himself and interacted with his surroundings. She got the impression that he was used to being in control.
Sandra studied his interactions
The more she examined the pair's dynamic, the more she felt that he was exhibiting this dominant behavior on her as well. Although the signs were subtle, they included things like choosing their seats, adjusting the overhead bin without a word to her, and speaking for her when another flight attendant asked if they needed anything.
She also felt that there was an insistence to the firmness of his voice, which also made Sandra uneasy. Although everything seemed fine on the surface, she couldn't stop wondering who this man was to the woman next to him.
Sandra starts subtly investigating
While Sandra's concerns were only burning more intensely within her, she still decided to watch and wait. After all, a 13-hour flight left a lot of time to gather more information about what she was seeing.
She wanted to be gentle and not draw too much attention to herself but she also wanted to make sure the woman as OK. She decided that she would approach her after her and Harper were finished serving drinks. However, she also knew it wouldn't be that simple.
Sandra waits for her opportunity
She made sure to think of an excuse first, in case her coworkers wondered what she was doing. She also decided that it would be wise to wait until the man got up to go to the bathroom.
As she grew more impatient waiting for this moment to happen, she also wondered what she would say to the young woman so as not to alarm her. She thought about making a joke about the airline's food or the length of the flight.
Then Sandra notices the woman's hands
While she kept an eye on the woman, Sandra noticed that her hands were making unusual gestures. Since the woman was so clearly nervous, Sandra would have expected her to fiddle with her skirt or absentmindedly tap her fingers as people normally do when they feel that way.
Instead, the woman's hand gestures seemed more pointed and deliberate. However, that didn't make it any easier to decipher them. As Sandra thought, "Is she signaling me?" That only made her unease deepen.
Assumptions started to form
Although airplane cabins are full of noise, Sandra's obsession with the traveling pair made them all fade into the background. The more she studied them and willed the man to get up and go to the bathroom, the more that her imagination tried to fill in the blanks.
As she thought to herself, "I hope he's not her partner. That just wouldn't sit right." It was already hard not to be worried when she first saw the woman, but Sandra was getting more anxious.
Opportunity finally knocks
After about two hours of waiting, Sandra saw the man get up and head for the restroom as predicted. She also made sure to talk to one of the coworkers assigned to aisle two to make her excuse for being there.
As she asked, "Hey, I think I left my pen near that seat by the window, mind if I check real quick while you handle this row?" She hid her anxiety and her colleague was too busy to pay much attention anyway, so they simply nodded. Finally, she could approach the woman's seat.
Confirmation of something she had noticed
As Sandra approached, a closer look at the woman confirmed what she thought she had seen earlier. Although they were still mysterious, Sandra discovered that the young woman's hand gestures weren't her imagination. They were as deliberate as they seemed.
They almost seemed like sign language but Sandra seemed to think they were unique to the woman herself. The fact that the woman also suddenly pretended to be interested in the scenery outside when Sandra approached was another clue that something was amiss.
Sandra enacts her plan
Sandra stuck a pen in her pocket before her approach and tried to stay casual as she pulled it out and presented it to the woman, saying, "I think this might be yours." She then put it down on a small piece of paper on the woman's tray table.
She quietly added, "If there's anything you need, feel free to jot it down, OK?" Although she tried to study the woman's response to this, she caught the man approaching out of the corner of her eye.
The plan quickly fails
Naturally, it didn't take the man long to notice the pen. He looked at it in confusion for a while before turning his eyes to the woman and then elsewhere. He quickly met Sandra's eyes as she stood fairly close by.
She sighed at this and began to feel exposed as he stared at her, feeling the need to get away. So she said, "Just thought this belonged to her" with an apologetic smile and quickly made her way to the galley before she could see the man's reaction.
The gestures return
Although Sandra had retreated, she was still watching the pair from afar. Not only did the woman's hand signals start up again, but the flight attendant started to notice a particular pattern about them.
Specifically, the woman only did them when the man was looking elsewhere, either to look at his phone or out the window. That made it all the more likely in Sandra's mind that these unknown hand signals were a subtle cry for help from the young woman.
Sandra thought back to her trauma
The more she saw the woman's hand gestures, the more Sandra thought back to her childhood, when she saw a pleading hand signal that involved folding her fingers over her thumb. When she was in her traumatic situation, she tried it.
Although the details of that incident were a dark shadow in her memory, she nonetheless remembered how hopeless it felt when nobody noticed her own gestures. With this in mind, she refused to stand idly by while someone else was in danger.
Confiding in a colleague
Charlotte interrupted this train of though, noticing how distracted Sandra had been that flight. Feeling the situation was imperative, Sandra laid everything out to her coworker, including the hand signals and her childhood trauma.
Charlotte then asked why she didn't talk to the woman directly about this, to which she replied that she figured the man would deny that anything was going on. Charlotte agreed, but advised watching them a while longer. As she said, "We need to be sure before we do anything… Let's not do anything rash or, you know, stupid."
However, she didn't have to watch them for long
Soon after Charlotte and Sandra had agreed to watch and wait, the young woman suddenly screamed. When Sandra and Charlotte rushed over to the pair's seats, they found the woman seeming to struggle as she tried to move away from the man sitting next to her.
"Leave her alone!" Sandra shouted to the man, who looked at her in shock. She felt he sounded defensive when he told her that the woman was just afraid of the turbulence, so she did not but that explanation at all.
Sandra prepared authorities for the plane's landing
Whether the woman was in a perilous relationship or a victim of human trafficking, Sandra thought it was clear that a crime was underway. Thus, she quickly retreated to the galley and called the receiving airport's emergency number.
After she described the situation on board the approaching plane, Sandra told authorities, "You need to be at the gate ready to board as soon as we land. I can't let that woman leave the plane with that man." When the plane landed, she firmly instructed all passengers to remain seated with their seat belts fastened.
The police arrive
If passengers wondered what the hold up was, they get their curiosity silent once a trio of police officers entered the cabin. As their heavy boots stomped down the aisle, everyone else was practically holding their breath.
Indeed, the man's face grew a look of surprise and anxiety when the officers approached him. Their expressions gave nothing away but they said, "Excuse me, sir, we need to speak with you and this woman."
A tense exchange
Concerned, the man asked whether something was wrong, only to be told, "We'll need to discuss that outside the aircraft, sir." A female officer gently approached the woman and signaled that it was time to get up, which she understood.
However, one the officer started to move with her, the man protested in horror. He asked, "Where are you taking her?" He then insisted, "She's with me! There's been a mistake!" This started to introduce some doubt in Sandra's mind.
The situation wasn't what it looked like
Although the man was caught off-guard by the police's actions, he quickly produced documents proving both of their identities and said, "I'm not sure what this is all about but if this relates to the earlier incident, I’m ready to explain."
As the officers looked through his documents, the man explained that the woman's hand signals were part of the therapy language they had developed together. Indeed, this claim became easier to believe when one of the officers noticed something in his documents. As he asked, "You're her dad?"
The man explained everything
After confirming this, the man continued, saying, "Her partner couldn't join us for the trip, so I’m here in his stead. She has some challenges with navigating situations like these on her own, partly due to her autism. It’s important that she has support."
He further explained that airplanes make her anxious and after he finished, the young woman softly confirmed what he had said. Not long after, the officers were satisfied with this explanation and exited the plane.
Sandra's anxiety is replaced by regret
Ruefully, Sandra said, "Looks like we jumped to conclusions" to Charlotte, who comforted her colleague by saying that their hearts were in the right place and they were trying to help. However, that did little to soothe Sandra's guilty conscience.
So, she resolved to swallow her pride and talk to them, stepping over to the pair and saying. "Excuse me, I owe you both an apology. I let my own fears cloud my judgment. I misinterpreted your gestures, and for that, I am truly sorry."
The man accepts her apology with grace.
In response, the man thanked Sandra for her honesty and shared that he understood how misunderstandings can arise from interstate and international travel situations like this. His daughter also smiled shyly at Sandra, which she warmly returned."
As the man continued, "Thank you for looking out for her. Even though it wasn't what you thought, I’m glad there are still people out there who act when they think they see danger." Soon after their exchange, the man and the young woman deboarded.
Sandra contemplates everything
With that, Sandra was left alone with her thoughts. Although she was relieved that this situation was nowhere near as dire as she thought, she felt lingering regret at how she handled it despite the man's assurances.
Although she still pledged to trust her instincts, she now vowed to temper them with compassion and understanding. Since every passenger has their own story, she resolved to be more flexible.