‘She made me cry’: Flight attendant opens up about viral moment on Gee’s flight

While KIRO host Gee Scott was on a flight, he witnessed a touching moment between a passenger and a flight attendant. Gee captured the moment on camera, which turned into internet gold and went viral quickly.

Since Gee had no clue what the two were talking about in the moment, “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio decided to have the flight attendant, Eric Cato, join the show and rehash what took place and how a struggling passenger was promptly taken care of.

“There was a passenger who was next to me. She was crying and all upset,” Gee said. “The flight attendant was coming by with the cart, and she had reached out to say something to him. He stopped what he was doing, knelt down, and had a conversation with her. I go to record, and he said to her, ‘Give me a hug.’ That hug changed everything. He got up, walked away, and she was all smiles, and it really helped her out.”

Flight attendant recalls the emotional encounter

Cato explained what was said between the two during their encounter, noting that he immediately knew that something was wrong.

“She grabbed my wrist very tightly. That caught my attention, so I knew immediately something was wrong,” Cato said. “She asked, ‘Do you know how bad a delay we are going to have?’ and, at that time, we’re going to be about 45 minutes late to San Francisco. She had a very tight connection to Beijing, China. She told me that her father is dying and she needs to make that fight, otherwise she’s gonna miss her last moments with him.

“I immediately knelt down, and it was just a connection that we made,” Cato continued. “I understand where she’s coming from. Being so far away from home, you’re away from your loved ones. That delay was going to mean a lot to her, and if she didn’t make that, I would have honestly felt super bad for her.”

As an employee of United Airlines, Cato noted that a connection with passengers is not uncommon and something they take pride in. The care Cato had for his passengers was evident in how he spoke about the emotions she brought out of him.

“She made me cry. It was super, super emotional,” Cato said. “I could just look into her eyes, and it was just something. I can’t describe in words what I felt in that moment, but I know that she needed someone. She needed another human connection just to let her know that everything is going to be okay. We ended up landing only four minutes late, and her next flight wasn’t until about an hour, so she definitely made her flight.”

On Facebook alone, Gee’s video went sky-high with more than one million views, 450 comments, and 36,000 reactions.

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.