Heartwarming: Crewmember Feeds 117 Year Old Passenger On Board

Long before the Lion Air crash of a Boeing 737 MAX, Indonesia’s airline industry has been plagued with questions about its safety. However there’s no getting around their hospitality culture, which is among the most heartwarming in the world.

I’ve had kind and courteous flight crew in the U.S. whether it’s helping a mother traveling alone with her young baby, or the Hawaiian Airlines flight attendant who serenaded the 97 year old Pearl Harbor survivor heading back for the first time because he seemed depressed.

It’s the simple kindnesses that mean the most, and they touch all of us when they’re done for the people who need them the most. So it’s no surprise that a Lion Air crewmember’s actions on a domestic flight in Indonesia – from Surabaya to Palangkaraya – are spreading like wildfire around the world.

The man helps a passenger on board by feeding her. She’s reportedly 117 years old. And the touching moment was captured on video by another passenger who was on the flight, Armaini Imay, who shared it to her Instagram account.

“With such loving care, the flight attendant gave her a beverage, fed her gently as though she was his own mother and managed to coax her to wear a seatbelt in the end,” Armaini observed.

In the first video the crewmember helps with her cup and wipes her mouth. In the second her food is too hot so he blows on it to cool it down for her, and he feeds it to her.

It’s a simple human interaction, and it’s nice to think that as impersonal as travel has become that every so often people are just people and care for each other.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Hmmm, since when does a flight attendant wear 4 stripes? Looks like one of the Captains for the flight.

  2. @Jeff….Really? Does it matter the rank or job of the man who’s doing the helping to the passenger on his flight? What a lovely gesture and we all can tell he’s so sincere in helping his passenger. Good man.

  3. 117? Really? That would make her the oldest certified person on earth. Seriously doubt that is the case. Old yes but seems like a publicity grab that, of course, Gary fell for.

  4. This pilot can’t be a Lion Air pilot. Must be a deadheading or commuter from another airline; Lion Air pilots wear gold epaulets, not silver.

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