Hundreds of healthcare workers at Intermountain Medical Center gathered outside to watch the Utah Strong flyover Thursday afternoon.
Although the flyover was designed as a thank you to healthcare workers, a large portion of the crowd yelled "thank you" back up into the air towards the pilots.
"It was awesome, for them to do that! I wanted to totally thank them and stuff, you know?" said Gil Corona, a medical assistant at Intermountain Medical Center."
Corona, who routinely laughs about his last name with patients, jokingly called himself a "walking vaccine" against the virus.
The moment was special to him, he said, because he got to see flyovers growing up at Edwards Air Force Base near his hometown in California.
"Look! It's a bird! It's a plane!" Corona laughed. "I'm like eagle eye over here! I just saw something!"
Jill Coleman, a social worker at Intermountain Medical Center, said she believes her cousin was likely one of the pilots taking part in the flyover -- this time saying "thank you" in a different way.
"I'm excited to talk to him about it!" Coleman said. "He's a brave man, that's for sure."
Healthcare workers said, for a brief moment, the flyover was more than just a "thank you" or a distraction -- it was a moment of hope, to keep going no matter how long it takes to beat COVID-19.
They said they hope the flyover gave a morale boost to more than just healthcare workers across Utah.