Last week I attended a conference, on an unrelated subject, where I met a pilot who was still flying for the same airline where I previously worked as a flight attendant. We figured out that we probably had worked together several times carrying passengers between Paris and Washington DC. It was at that point that he actually told me, with a chuckle, how the flight deck refers to flight attendants: ‘Airbags’, ‘CDs’ (because they are wide, spanning the aisles from the C to the D seats), and of course my favourite – ‘hostitutes’.
flight attendants didn’t smile or the onboard service was bad. No one gave the question further thought. At one dinner party, however, a ‘techie’ summed up his attitude eloquently by comparing in-flight safety to working on a computer. “When you use a computer you have an anti- virus programme on it,” he explained, “which allows you to do your work, knowing that you are protected from viruses and malware. You don’t see the software but you know it is there and you depend on it. Flight attendants are like that. You know that they are expertly trained to react in an emergency and that knowledge allows you to relax and enjoy your flight.” Brilliant analogy, but unfortunately a view not shared by many. On a recent flight I was sitting next to a couple seated in the emergency exit row. The flight attendant appeared and asked if we had all read the safety information card and if we were ready to assist in an evacuation in case of an emergency? We all responded yes. Then, when the flight attendant walked away, the wife turned to her husband and asked, “What card?”
Fellow Crew Members The attitude of pilots towards flight attendants is difficult to assess. Most pilots I have worked with seemed to respect the job of the flight attendant, or at least outwardly. The best ones to work with give thorough flight briefings, including all the flight attendants on the crew, emphasising that they are all one team on board and want to know when something happens in the cabin that doesn’t look right. There are many pilots who really count on, and respect, the security and safety skills of the flight attendants in the back and treat them accordingly. There are far too many, however, that don’t.
December 2011 Aviationsecurityinternational
www.asi-mag.com 25
Recently a disturbing incident made the news, involving a 737 pilot for a major airline in the US. This pilot, on an open mic, broadcast a rant against flight attendants over the ATC frequency in which he called flight attendants “a bunch of gays, grannies and grandees.” He continued talking (even after being told his mic was on) about meeting some of the crew members after the flight and how increasingly difficult it is to find flight attendants he wanted to sleep with. He continued, “There’s only a handful of cute chicks … I only found one that was probably doable.” How did the company handle the situation? The pilot was reprimanded, sent to ‘diversity training’ and suspended for an undisclosed amount of time. This brings us to probably
the most influential group in the flight attendant’s world – the one that could make the most difference in promoting the image of flight attendants as safety professionals – the companies they work for.
The Company
Unfortunately most companies think of flight attendants in terms of ‘marketing’ rather than ‘safety.’ Granted, customer service is important and is a large part of what flight attendants do and no company wants to emphasise the fact that you are travelling at 500 mph 35,000 feet in the air where many things could go wrong, but I’d be willing to bet that there would be no flight attendants on board at all in the United States if it weren’t for a FAA ruling stipulating the ratio of flight attendants to passengers on commercial airline flights. The FAA has reasons why they require flight attendants on board, and specify the ratio. It isn’t to pass out pretzels.
Candace Kolander, coordinator for air safety health and security for the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), testified before the Subcommittee on Aviation in Washington DC, that “Years of cultural attitudes have often relegated flight attendants to nothing more than ‘servers in the sky’ in the eyes of some. In fact, airline management is more
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52