Woman fat-shamed on flight hails "hero" passenger
A good Samaritan who intervened after a passenger on a plane began to fat-shame a woman has been called a “hero”.
On Monday, Savannah Phillips boarded a flight to Chicago and was seated next to a man who she says was “in his 60s with yellow sunglasses who claimed to be a comedian”.
“As soon as I got buckled, he sat back down... his phone was maybe 12 inches from my face and he proceeded to text someone that he was sitting next to a ‘smelly fatty’,” Savannah wrote on her Facebook page.
“I don’t even know what the rest of his text said,” she wrote.
“I turned my head away as fast as I could. I was shocked and it was like confirmation of the negative things I think about myself on a daily basis.
“Before I knew it, I could feel hot, salty tears coming down my face.”
Savannah revealed that another man sitting across the aisle read the text and decided to intervene.
“He tapped him on the shoulder and said, ‘I need to talk to you’,” she recalled. When the comedian turned around, the passenger informed him that they were “switching seats right now”.
When the comedian asked why they were swapping seats, the man said: “Because you're a heartless person, I read your text, and the girl next to you crying also read your text. And you should really take into consideration other people's feelings.”
They immediately swapped seats.
“When he sat down he saw me crying and asked why I was crying,” Savannah said.
“He said to not let it get to me and not to worry about it, and we started making small talk which made me feel better.”
Savannah later learned that the passenger who had intervened for her was Chase Irwin, a manager at the Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row bar and restaurant in Nashville.
“I was so blessed and happy he was there. I hope it sets a good example for others for what they should do in situations like that and to stick up for people when they need help.
“The flight attendant kept trying to give him free drinks and told him that he was her hero. He wasn’t her hero – he was mine.
She added, “I do feel a little more beautiful today.”