Working as an airplane refueler is a physically and mentally demanding job. It involves handling highly flammable, hazardous fluids, adhering to countless policies, procedures, and regulations, and working on a loud, busy airplane tarmac, rain or shine. That’s why, after two decades on the job refueling planes at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California, U.S. Navy veteran James Blair had developed a debilitating limp.
Blair’s hard work on the tarmac, even though he was in obvious pain, caught the attention of Lacinda Thackeray from Salt Lake City, Utah, who took a video of him from her plane window and uploaded it to TikTok. “Does anyone know this man at the John Wayne Airport?” she asked her followers. “Watching him work so hard, he can barely move, truly broke my heart. I know there has to be a way we can help him retire.”
Thackeray’s TikTok post received over 7 million views
The post went viral, garnering over seven million views and inspiring Thackeray to launch a GoFundMe campaign to help him retire. “I was sitting at John Wayne Airport, just waiting like everyone else, when I noticed a man outside on the tarmac. At first, nothing seemed unusual—just another worker doing his job,” Thackeray wrote on the GoFundMe page. “But then I really watched. He could barely walk. Every step looked painful. He moved slowly, carefully, like his body was working against him. And yet, he kept going and lifting equipment and moving the airplane stairs. Fueling planes. Doing physically demanding work that most people half his age would struggle with. And he didn’t stop. There was no complaint, no hesitation—just quiet determination. It broke me.”
A month after the GoFundMe page was created, it raised nearly $175,000 of its $200,000 goal. Over 5,000 people sent in donations and, for Blair, it was cathartic. “When I first saw the video, and I saw the money coming up, I started laughing, because I’ve been doing this job for 20 years and I just didn’t think anybody actually cared,” Blair told CBS News.
The GoFundMe campaign came when Blair was at his breaking point
Even though he was in chronic pain, he had to keep working to care for his 90-year-old mother undergoing hospice care. “My mom fell … I’m going to cry. My mom fell in September, and she was taken to the hospital,” Blair said. For Blair, the donations couldn’t have come at a better time. “It almost got to a point, I want to say, like a month ago, where I was going to have to quit work to take care of her,” Blair told NBC News.
In addition to helping pay for his mother’s care, Blair hopes to use the money to have knee surgery. “When you go up and down on your knees three, four times a flight, after a while the knees just start giving out,” he told NBC News. “I’m in pain all the time. Walking downstairs, walking on ladders.”
For years, Blair worked through pain in front of countless passengers who took off and landed on the busy tarmac at John Wayne Airport. Thackeray changed his life because she decided that something had to be done. “His co-worker said to me, you know, how many people have passed that window and seen what you’ve seen, but you’re the only one who took the action and helped him that day,” Thackeray said.
Blair’s story is a wonderful example of what can happen when people take empathy and turn it into action. “It’s amazing,” Blair said. “I’m at a loss for words.”
