9-Year-Old With Flight Anxiety Panics During Turbulence, So Flight Attendant Sits Beside Her

Mar 28, 2019 by apost team

Many people around the world just can’t get enough of the good vibes in this little story.

Gabby, the daughter of Erika Swart, has some extreme anxiety when it comes to flying. She also suffers from type 1 diabetes. This made things a little difficult when Erika had to take a trip with all three of her children without her husband at her side.

When the plane took off, poor Gabby began to panic. At only nine years old, she didn’t really understand that she would be ok during and after the plane ride. The turbulence during flight really scared her and there were other times throughout the flight when she was in terrible fear.

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Her health even suffered as her blood sugar bottomed out to a dangerously low point at one time.

"During extremely rough turbulence she began crying and grabbed his arm, he gently told her she could hang on as long as she needed to.", Erika posted on Facebook. 

Even though Erika had planned to take care of things all by herself, that wasn’t the case for her. One of the flight attendants on Southwest was more than happy to step in to help out. Garrick Riley was there to be of service.

He first helped out by letting Gabby choose what she wanted to drink on the flight. He even sat with her during the entire flight. Gabby had many questions for him and he answered all of them without hesitation. He let Gabby hold his arm at times when she was frightened. You could see the fear completely lift from her face.

When the flight ended, Garrick went over the intercom to congratulate Gabby for facing her fear of flying and being an overcomer. Everyone on the plane cheered her on for her accomplishment.

Erika recalls thinking about her experience and how great it is when others really do show compassion to others, especially when it’s your own child. The world is so judgmental these days so it’s often rare to find people like Garrick.

Erika is so grateful for what Garrick did for her daughter. She wanted the world to know. She took to Facebook to share their experience and of course, it didn’t take long before the story went viral.

Be sure to send this story on to others so we can let the world hear about Garrick and just how well he does his job. He definitely goes above and beyond! Have you had an encounter like this before? Let us hear about your experience in the comments.