This Flight Attendant Rescued a Girl From Trafficking With a Secret Bathroom Note

The inspiring story of one woman's efforts to save a young girl from human trafficking is sweeping the internet again. While serving the travelers aboard an Alaska Airlines trip in 2011, flight attendant Sheila Fredrick quickly realized that something was off with two of her passengers. A girl with greasy blond hair sat in the window seat next to a well-dressed older man, making for an alarming duo.

The girl, whom Fredrick estimated to be 14 or 15 years old, "looked like she had been though pure hell," the 49-year-old told NBC in an interview. When the flight attendant tried starting a conversation with the pair, the man was defensive, she explained.

Fredrick followed her instincts and sprang into action to do something about the odd situation. She quietly told the teenager to use the cabin bathroom, where she left the girl a secret note on the mirror, according to local Florida station WTSP. "She wrote back on the note and said, 'I need help,'" Fredrick told NBC. The Alaska Airlines employee informed the pilot about the young girl's plea for help, and police arrested the man upon the plane's arrival.

Although the incident happened in 2011, it recently went viral on Reddit after being featured in a flight attendant workshop focusing on identifying signs of human trafficking. Airline Ambassadors, a nonprofit organization, held the two-day training session in Houston to prep attendants for the influx of travelers for the Super Bowl, teaching them how to handle a situation in which they believe human trafficking is involved.

The story is similar to another one about an Uber driver who helped a 16-year-old girl escape from a sex trafficking situation. These examples of heroism are exactly what we needed to reinstill our faith in humanity these days.