Plane Passenger Holds Stranger’s Hand During Takeoff After He Notices She’s ‘Visibly Shaken’ (Exclusive)

As Chad Savage’s flight began to take off, he felt a soft touch on his hand.

“I looked up and I could see her hand was trembling a bit,” he tells PEOPLE of the woman sitting across the aisle. “I could see her body language [was] really anxious, and then I just grabbed her hand.”

“It just felt natural to do,” he adds. 

Savage admits he hardly knows anything about the woman. They didn’t even exchange names. But he did overhear her anxieties about flying alone for the first time. 

For about five minutes, the complete strangers held hands during takeoff. But it never felt awkward or like a hassle. Instead, Savage says he thinks he got more out of the experience than the nervous flyer — something he never expected. 

“At first, I was there for her. Now we’re just here for each other,” he explains. “It was really powerful for me.”

As her worries began to quell, the strangers released their grip. Afterwards, the woman turned to Savage to thank him.

“She told me how much she appreciated that, how much it meant to her,” he says. “She also told me that I should tell my parents that they raised me right, which is really, really nice.”

Savage shared a clip of the experience to TikTok. The viral video, with just under a half a million views, led commenters to share their own experiences of comforting strangers.

“I was 14 flying alone and I was sat next to this mom and her kids,” one user wrote. “I was in the window and she held my hand and treated me like her own. I’ll never forget her.”

“I first started driving a semi truck and my first time in the Smokey Mountains it was dark and raining and I was scared,” another comment with over 5,000 likes said. “On my CB radio I hear the driver behind call my truck because I was driving slow. Told him I was nervous. This UPS driver said ‘I’m going to pass you, follow me, I’ll talk you through this.’ He talked me through the process and kept me calm. That was in 1995, I remember it to this day. We all need comfort sometimes.”

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Others shared words of encouragement and admiration for Savage.

“The fact that she felt okay to ask you says a lot about how you present yourself in public,” wrote one user.

“It’s been really cool and inspiring,” Savage tells PEOPLE of the outpouring of support. “It makes you feel so happy because that’s the kind of platform that I want to build and that’s what I want to be a part of.” 

For Savage, the experience has given him a new outlook on life.

“It really has refreshed my mindset and just in knowing what I feel like my purpose is, which is just to connect with people and spread kindness,” he says. “If I can inspire anyone through this video to just go out of the way, just a little bit more each day, I promise the return would be something that they never expected.”