Frightened flyers go viral after flight attendants pass out candles before turbulence

A woman has gone viral on TikTok after she feared for her life when she was handed a candle on a flight before turbulence struck.

Catching a flight is always a unique experience that can ignite stress or anxiety, even for those comfortable being thousands of meters up in the sky. As such, people are always coming up with new hacks to make traveling via plane easier and smooth.

Polish content creator Jula Vadini, known as jula.vadini on the platofrm, was left “very confused” during a recent flight from Bogotá San José Del Guaviare, Colombia, when attendants began handing out electronic candles to each passenger right before huge turbulence struck the plane.

Given the situation’s absurdity, Vadini decided to film a TikTok of the moment, holding the candle in the frame and looking around with great confusion because she or any of the other patrons were not given any explanation for why they had been handed a candle.

The TikTok has garnered over 1.4 million views in just two days and has gone viral on the platform.

“Are we dying?” Vadini questioned in the video right before things took a turn, and the plane was hit with turbulence.

When the flight attendants began shouting instructions, all of which Vadini couldn’t understand given that they were in Spanish, she began to “panic” and “over-analyse all the noises,” as seen in TikTok.

TikToker discovers reason for the candle after landing safely

“I thought that the candle was given to us for good luck and to pray as we would probably crash,”  the 27-year-old admitted before adding that she “started to pray” for a safe landing.

Thankfully, the plane touched down safely despite these rocky moments, and it was only after exiting the plane that Vadini discovered what the candles were actually for.

“The candle wasn’t for us to pray before the crash but for us to make a wish. Obviously, I was completely unaware of this.”

In Colombian culture, December 7 is known as Immaculate Conception Eve, also known as Little Candles Day. This religious holiday celebrates the conception of Jesus.

Vadini updated her original Instagram post with this revelation: “It turns out this is a Colombian tradition on December 7! One candle = one wish!! How wholesome.” 

Despite the mixup, TikTok users backed up Vadini, commenting how they “would have had the same reaction” to be handed a candle in the middle of a flight.