A flight attendant from America has revealed how she spotted and managed to rescue a trafficking victim, as the girl travelled with her captor.
Shelia Fedrick, who works for Alaska Airlines, became concerned for one of her passenger son a flights from Seattle to San Francisco in 2010.
She described to NBC how the teenager was travelling with an older man who looked smart, but that in contract the girl looked like she’d “been through pure hell.”
He suspicions were raised further when the man spoke for the girl at every opportunity, and became defensive whenever people tried to talk to her direct.
“I left a note in one of the bathrooms. She wrote back and said ‘I need help,'” the attendant told NBC.
800,000 are trafficked each year – many of them children
After having her fears confirmed, Shelia contacted the pilot, who arranged for police to stop them on the ground.
Shockingly, the young girl’s ordeal is not rare, with an estimated 800,000 people being trafficked each year. 80% of this number are female, and half are children.
To combat this, a group known as Airline Ambassadors train flight attendants to spot the signs of human trafficking, and help intervene.
Sheila told her story as she trained the other flight attendants at the charity.
Nancy Rivard, president of the group, said: “Our team discussed the issue, and because we were alert to what to look for, correctly identified three cases of trafficking on our departing flights.
“In every case, the flight attendants agreed with our assessment but did not know what to do. We showed them the National Hotline phone number and advised them to alert the pilots.
“Pilots notified Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) to pay special attention to these individuals at customs.
“We were right in every case, and because of the flight attendants action, these children were saved from a life of slavery, pornography or prostitution.’
Touchingly, Shelia also gave the girl her phone number, that the girl had memorised. Weeks after the incident, she got in touch and they still speak today. Now an adult, she apparently attends college.
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