Woman fat-shamed on flight praises passenger who intervened to help her

'It meant the world to me'

A social media post praising a man for intervening to comfort a fellow flight passenger who was fat-shamed has gone viral.

Savannah Phillips, from Oklahoma, US, always prefers to sit by herself during flights because she feels self-conscious about her weight but when she boarded a plane to Chicago on Monday this wasn’t an option.

Instead, she was seated next to a man described to be 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,’” Phillips wrote on Facebook.

“I don’t even know what the rest of his text said. 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."

However, a stunning twist shortly followed as, unbeknownst to her, another passenger sitting across the aisle also happened to see the message on his phone.

Savannah Phillips has praised Chase Irwin for intervening after she was fat-shamed (News Channel 5)

“He tapped him on the shoulder and said, 'I need to talk to you'” she told News Channel 5.

“The guy took his earphones out and turned around and he said, 'We're switching seats right now.'”

The kind stranger told the so-called comedian that he would not put up with the text message he was sending and immediately after the two men switched seats.

The passenger, who she later learned was Chase Irwin, from Nashville, comforted the mother and reassured her that everything was going to be fine.

“I was going to wait until the end of the flight to say something but I could not have this guy sit next to her this whole flight and her thinking he's making fun of her" Irwin said.

“It really gets to me deep down when I see someone crying, and when I saw her crying it really hit me hard and actually got sick to my stomach.”

Chase Irwin reassured Savannah Phillips that everything was going to be fine (News Channel 5)

Phillips added that she hopes the story sets a good example for others when it comes to similar situations and hailed Irwin as her hero.

“I told him thank you for what he did and that it meant the world to me,” she wrote.

“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.”