'I'll get you through this': Air Canada flight attendant comforts passenger having panic attack
An Air Canada flight attendant is being praised for spending hours comforting a passenger who was having a panic attack on a flight to Europe.
Vancouver woman Celeste Leander was flying from Toronto to Vienna on July 6 when the woman in the row ahead of her began to feel uneasy.
"It started when even before we were taxiing," Leander told CTV News Toronto. "The passenger clearly knew she was very nervous to fly and started talking to the flight attendants."
Leander said initially the flight attendants just checked in with the woman, but then she started to become more anxious.
"That's when the flight attendant came over and sat down and said 'I'll get you through this, it's going to be okay,' and started holding her hand and breathed with her," she said.
"For a long time she sat with her. She was just really amazing and it was just a heartfelt moment."
The flight attendant then returned to sit with the passenger when the plane was landing, Leander said.
Leander posted a photo of the flight attendant on Twitter, saying she deserved to be awarded by the airline. That tweet has since been viewed more than 650,000 times.
The flight attendant in the photo responded to Leander’s tweet saying she didn’t realize she was being observed, but is thankful her actions were acknowledged.
"I was raised by one of the kindest women to ever grace this earth and so I did what she taught me to do for the last 52 years," Loridana Nasso wrote. "At the end of the day, it's my job to do what I did."
In a statement to CTV News Toronto, Air Canada said they are proud of Nasso’s actions and that "what occurred on this flight exemplifies the empathy and professionalism qualities that we value in our crew members."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Signs of Alzheimer’s were everywhere. Then his brain improved
Blood biomarkers of telltale signs of early Alzheimer’s disease in the brain of his patient, 55-year-old entrepreneur Simon Nicholls, had all but disappeared in a mere 14 months.
Flammable kids' sleepwear, salmonella-contaminated chips: Here are the recalls of this week
Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency issued recalls for various items this week, including kids' bassinets, chips, and stoves. Here's what to watch out for.
Lyon-bound Air Canada Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner from Montreal turns back midflight due to pressurization alert
Passengers heading from Montreal to Lyon, France on Friday were forced to return home and depart the next day after a pressurization indication was detected in flight.
U.S. ambassador 'not aware' of any plans for Trudeau-Trump meeting
Canada's Ambassador to the United States says she's 'not aware' of any plans for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to meet with former U.S. president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump before the November American election.
Sentencing trial set to begin for Florida man who executed 5 women at a bank in 2019
Zephen Xaver walked into a central Florida bank in 2019, fatally shot five women and then called police to tell them what he did. Now 12 jurors will decide whether the 27-year-old former prison guard trainee is sentenced to death or life without parole.
'How do you get hypothermia in a prison?' Records show hospitalizations among Virginia inmates
The Virginia State Police investigator seemed puzzled about what the inmate was describing: "unbearable" conditions at a prison so cold that toilet water would freeze over and inmates were repeatedly treated for hypothermia.
The secret Italian lakes that most tourists don't know about
Italy has dozens of secret smaller lakes that boast superb scenery, unknown to mass tourism, where locals get together on day trips and enjoy picnics.
Canadian immigration asks medical worker fleeing Gaza if he treated Hamas fighters
Lawyers are questioning Canada’s approach to screening visa applications for people in Gaza with extended family in Canada after one applicant, a medical worker, was asked whether he had treated members of Hamas.
Walmart, Costco refusing to sign grocery code of conduct 'untenable': industry minister
Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne says it's 'untenable' for 'smaller players' like Walmart and Costco to delay signing on to the government- and industry-led grocery code of conduct, now that industry giant Loblaw has agreed to do so.