Maintenance worker saves boy on airport escalator - Atlanta News, Weather, Traffic, and Sports | FOX 5

A maintenance worker is being hailed as hero for saving the life of a young boy at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport last week.

Edwin Porter he saw the child, aged around 5 or 6, playing on an escalator near the airport's atrium and then holding onto its handrail with his feet on the outside metal railing and having no way to get down.

At that point, Porter took off running up the stairs.

"I made sure that when I got to him, that I got my arm completely around him, and that I had hooked and that I had him from the front too so that when I lifted him over the rail there was no chance that anything was going to happen to him," said Porter. "He didn't offer me any resistance when I pulled him over the rail at all.  As soon as I got to him he was already ready to go."

The boy was nearly at the top of the escalator when porter pulled him out -- the escalator was still moving with the child approaching the barrier at the end of the lift. Below him was a drop of 30 to 40 feet.

"By the time I got to him…he was somewhere near this bend in the railing and believe me when I grabbed a hold of him, he offered me no resistance whatsoever. He was ready to get off," said Porter.

Porter's act is one that's earned him praise which he quickly brushes off. He says all he could think about when he saw the helpless child holding on for dear life was his own son, who is about the same age.

"Kids do things that are inexplicable and I would hope that if something happens when I wasn't there, that somebody would be there for my kid too," said Porter.

Porter says his bosses at the airport have praised his actions and he got an unexpected reaction from airport patrons in the atrium at the time -- a round of applause.