Finnair pilot helps overwhelmed mother feed babies on flight

This Finnair pilot has the internet swooning for a very good reason. Photo / Instagram, amipix

A Finnair pilot has the internet swooning after he helped a mother feed her baby mid-flight.

The woman was travelling with her four young sons, two of which were small infants who needed to be bottle-fed, when Captain Tom Nystrom offered a helping hand - and lap, news.com.au reports.

Mr Nystrom offered to hold one of the babies on his lap and feed him the bottle. When one of them became fussy, he would hand the boy back to his mother and take another child instead.

The act of kindness went viral when flight attendant Ami Niemela posted an adorable photo of the uniformed captain smiling with one of the chubby-cheeked bubs in his arms on social media, when they landed at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport.

View this post on Instagram

Today we had a mother on board travelling with four little boys. Two of the boys were just babies. Naturally one cannot travel with two babies on one's lap, so we had to solve the dilemma of missing lap, otherwise it would have been a no go for mom and the kids. Luckily we had our positioning crew on board and wonderful Tom didn't hesitate one second when I asked him to take the task of being the extra-lap. Don't you find them quite adorable! <3 #airlinecrew #positioning #extrachores #babyonboard #feelfinnair #finnairpilots #avgeek #service #adorable #serviceexcellence #cute #pilot #bestattitude #mycaptain #whentheresawilltheresaway #paxex @tom_of_finnair

A post shared by ami niemelä (@amipix) on Apr 6, 2017 at 9:22am PDT

"Today we had a mother on board travelling with four little boys. Two of the boys were just babies," she wrote on social media.

"Naturally one cannot travel with two babies on one's lap, so we had to solve the dilemma of missing lap, otherwise it would have been a no go for mom and the kids.

"Luckily we had our positioning crew on board and wonderful Tom took the task of being the extra lap."

The post has been liked over 1000 times so far.

"I have children of my own ... so it came natural to me to help this customer with her babies," Mr Nystrom told the Independent.

Many comments on Ms Niemela's post point out the stark contrast between this kind gesture and United Airline's brutal treatment of a passenger on an overbooked flight.

"United Airlines beats their customers while Finnair takes care of even babies," one commenter wrote.

Others just wanted Captain Nystrom to know much they appreciated him.

"This is awesome! I travel back and forth between the US and Europe a lot with two young kids. It's acts like this that make me appreciate people more! Thank you Tom!" another commenter wrote.