A father who had a sweet airport reunion with his daughter has melted the internet’s collective heart.
Carlie Nicole Shively happened to be at the same airport as her dad, a Delta Air Lines pilot, who hand-delivered a Chick-fil-A to her gate—making him an easy contender for dad of the year award.
“These little moments matter so much,” Shively (@imcarlie) shared on TikTok in footage that garnered 1.1 million likes and 6.7 million views.
Shively filmed her father dressed in his pilot uniform as she approached him at the gate.
His face immediately lit up as he saw his daughter. She then flipped the video to film from the front-facing camera, to show the duo embrace in a warm hug.
“Hi, smiley,” the dad said as he hugged his grinning daughter.
The pilot profession can appear to be a lonely existence—with flyers working unsociable hours, living between time zones and seemingly having little time to spend with their loved ones.
The Center for Aviation Psychology, London carried out a study in 2019 called “The Impact of Work on Pilots’ Personal Relationships.”
“The ever-changing relationships characterized by the making and breaking of emotional intimacy at home and forming work relationships with crew only for a short period of time can result in feelings of loneliness and isolation,” the study read.
Some 207 of 300 pilots surveyed said there were disruptions in their personal lives due to their high-flying careers.
“The long days/weeks apart aren’t always easy but man is it such a great job,” Carlie Shively said.
Her sister commented: “We call him Delta dad now!”
They tagged their dad’s new TikTok page @delta.dad where the pilot revealed he was a in the military for 20 years and went on to fly for Delta in 2017.
“I’m not a really big social media person. I think anybody that knows me would say it’s really ironic that I’ve got 3 million views on any video that my face is in.
“But it’s also kind of cool because it was a little candid snapshot, something that was positive,” Delta Dad said on TikTok.
Commenters were left emotional by the sweet interaction between the dad and daughter.
“This is so precious,” one user wrote. “This is so sweet I wanna cry,” said Nat.
“Omg love! my dad is a pilot for delta too and we’ve had plenty of times where we met in the airports,” said Emma.
Even Delta Air Lines commented: “We have the best people (and dads).”
Newsweek reached out to Carlie Nicole Shively for comment via Instagram. We could not verify the details of the case.
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