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.
Dear @LionAirID, kalian harus beri penghargaan untuk mas ini.
Dear Mas Mugara Lion Air, siapapun kamu, kamu adalah contoh Flight Attendant yang sangat sempurna.
Semoga berkah dan menjadi pahala untuk kamu ya, Mas!! pic.twitter.com/PL22dPX8q8
— Coklat Strawberry 🍫🍓 (@the4rel) November 17, 2019
Mas, apakah kamu merindukan Ibu kamu?? Kamu begitu telaten membantu Ibu tua ini.
Surga untuk kamu, Mas!! pic.twitter.com/LwPizYYuZM
— Coklat Strawberry 🍫🍓 (@the4rel) November 17, 2019
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.
Hmmm, since when does a flight attendant wear 4 stripes? Looks like one of the Captains for the flight.
117? that means she was born in the year the Boer War ended…
@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.
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.
WOW! Gary, you sure do collect a bunch of negative readers!
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.