Plane passengers watch presidential debate together in 'heartening' photo

Being miles above the ground didn't stop these plane passengers from watching the debate together.

San Francisco-based author Caroline Paul told ABC she was on a Virgin America flight from New York to San Francisco during the final presidential debate Wednesday night when she noticed that many of her fellow passengers were watching. She shared a photo of the experience on Twitter, captioning it simply, "Democracy."

The photo received more than 1,000 retweets overnight and received positive comments such as, "I find this incredibly heartening," and "You have restored my confidence in mankind."

Though the photo displays citizens tuning in to the debate from both sides of the aisle, not everyone was on board. At least one passenger was watching a reality show.

Another passenger who interacted with Paul on Twitter wrote that the group reacted with "Lots of laughs and OMGs" during the broadcast, saying, "It was a pretty cool experience to watch and react to the debate with this group."

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story misattributed the quote about the group's reaction to Paul.