You might have seen this photo on social media recently – the original post went viral, getting thousands of likes and shares – in it, the flight attendant is sitting down, looking intently at a customer, holding her hand, and comforting her. We sat down with the flight attendant in the photo – one of Endeavor’s own, Floyd Dean-Shannon – to talk about that moment.
“I was getting ready to serve my First Class customers when I noticed that a passenger in 4C was visibly sweating. I asked my flight partner to take over the First Class service while I take care of this customer because she looked very distressed,” Floyd said.
Floyd sat down next to the passenger, grabbed her hand, and asked her if she was okay. The passenger told Floyd that she’s had bad flight experiences in the past, and she was feeling very nervous.
“I started explaining to her that the little bumps we were experiencing was the wake turbulence, as all planes go through that sometimes. I told her that there was no need to panic, as we want her and the rest of our customers to have an elevated customer experience. Safety is the number one priority for us,” Floyd said.
Floyd then resumed serving beverages to his First Class passengers.
“The passenger said, ‘it looks like you’ve gotten at least five requests to make mimosas, so I think I’m going to have a mimosa.’ She drank the mimosa and started calming down,” Floyd said. “Soon, it was time for pre-arrival, and I told her I had to make my announcement and get ready to land in JFK.”
The customer replied, “Yeah, but do I have time for another mimosa?” Floyd smiled and ensured her that he would do anything for her to enjoy the flight.
In just a little over an hour, the flight experience for that passenger went from stressing and sweating, to having a fun and relaxing time. When they landed, Floyd was showered with hugs by the passenger and her friends.
“My main goal was to turn this into a positive experience and put myself in her shoes. We are trained to do this, so why not put those skills into action?” Floyd said. “Our goal is to get our customers from point A to point B safely.”
Floyd’s positive attitude and easy confidence make it might seem that he has years of flying under his belt, but in fact, Floyd just recently earned his wings. He started with Endeavor in October 2022, but for more than ten years, his dream was to become a flight attendant.
“I love to fly. I love taking care of my customers and I love to represent the Endeavor and Delta brand. I am just happy to be here,” Floyd said.
The night of that memorable flight, Floyd received a Facebook message from his cousin, who is a Delta flight attendant, asking if he had seen this photo.
“I looked at it at and realized it was me from the flight earlier today. My cousin congratulated me and told me how proud she was of me. Soon after that, my inbox started flooding with messages from family, friends, and people from all over the aviation community.”
The empowering photo has not only caught the people’s hearts on social media, but also caught the attention of several national news outlets. Floyd did a live video interview on the CNN Morning Show, and his story has been featured on Spectrum News, Good Morning America, among others.
Floyd is still receiving notes from people around the world and he is taking this moment in stride.
“I’m still absorbing all of it. I just look at it like, if I can touch this one person, then how many other more people’s hearts can I touch?”
“I’m ready to go back to work, that’s my goal,” Floyd said. “To anyone who wants to be a flight attendant, there’s a lot of hard work and dedication, but it’s a very rewarding job.”
Hear what news outlets had to say about the story:
EDV On The Fly 