Comments on: Certified Flight Attendants

By: Norman

Norman — Mon, 04 May 2009 11:27:26 +0000

Great point Carolyn, pilot incapacitation reports and bucket loads of testimony like yours show that the person who is becoming incapacitated cannot be relied upon to pass the message that they ain’t drunk, on drugs, mentally ill or otherwise indisposed. They may get violent, irrational or simply unresponsive.
A bit like me after a trip with a long meridian transit…. or some cabin crew I know. LOL

By: CarolynW

CarolynW — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 19:27:09 +0000

Back in the late 70s, I was working for the National Weather Service in Bismarck, ND. I called the tower at 4am for clearance for a balloon release. The controller mumbled something and hung up. Since I didn’t understand him, and needed clearance, I called him back. More mumbling, and slurring of words, and he hung up. I talked to a fellow employee who also called him, more unintelligible words. We both agreed he sounded drunk. I released the balloon after doing a visual of no traffic, and then we called the Center who I guess must have tried to contact him and then called his supervisor. We were told later the controller had suffered a stroke.

I have a daughter who is an insulin-dependent diabetic and has had diabetes since age 6. When she has too much insulin, and her sugar level drops too low, she acts as if she is spacy, or drunk. She will start sentences and not finish them. She will ack like a zombie, and once walked right by me and looked at me, but it was if she looked right through me, and then walked on. She does wear a MedicAlert bracelet to let people know what’s wrong with her if she starts behaving strangely, and hopefully someone will call 911 in her behalf.

This flight attendant may have been in the same situation as either of the two people mentioned above. You may never know what her problem was, due to privacy issues, but rest assured you did the right thing in reporting the incident so she could be checked out.

By: GNAStech

GNAStech — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 11:45:06 +0000

Point is: When people fail your expectations all sorts of things are pointed out about them that have nothing to do with their failure. For example, their age, their gender and their race or ethnicity frequently become the incidental details of stories like this. You easily prejudicing your audience with them. Do you see how you thought I was criticizing the woman for being black? It was just an incidental detail taken seriously by you.

By: TheGimliGlider

TheGimliGlider — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 18:40:31 +0000

@GNAStech A California mom has been charged with murder of 8-year-old girl who she also kidnapped and abused with a foreign object. And the mom was white, an avid Christ follower and church-goer. See what I did there?

I’m not black by the way.

By: Robert Mark

Robert Mark — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:20:19 +0000

Must admit I agree with GimliGlider on this one.

The fact that the woman was black is somewhat off track.
What if I’d said the reason I had the problem aboard Continental was because the flight attendant was a woman to begin with?

By: TheGimliGlider

TheGimliGlider — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:43:53 +0000

@GNAStech What has her race got to do with her job and this post? O_O

By: GNAStech

GNAStech — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 11:33:11 +0000

“…interestingly, while Helen was on the PA, the captain, another lady, could be heard in the background giving her the correct number.”

Interesting indeed. The incidental comments you make keep me coming back for more. But this is not really what I was going to comment on. I was in the doctor’s office yesterday and perusing a magazine that had a “factoid” page about age. One of the “factoids” was regarding the average age of the three flight attendants that were aboard the Hudson water landing. The average age of those three women is 55. Their age never became an issue because they efficiently did their job during the emergency. But what about that young flight attendant on my flight from Chicago to OKC? I was sitting bolt upright in that last row of seats in the back and this young lady was sitting on her little fold-down, head thrown back and sleeping. She was also black. Now, we’re talking about customer service in general now, right?

By: Bob Benton

Bob Benton — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 18:18:32 +0000

It was many years ago and I was on a Piedmont flight of five stops between Roanoke and Chicago, I believe. The equipment was an F-27 and the F/A gave the flight information (stops and final destination, with flight number) on the ground before we departed. From that point on, the first officer made the required safety belt and tray table walkthroughs and the cabin announcements. The F/A spent her time in the lav, no doubt sick as a dog through the bumpy flight (my own opinion), emerging after the plane landed at each stop for passenger unloading and loading. This continued all the way to Chicago O’Hare. Unbelievable!

You are very correct in your actions.

Bob

By: TheGimliGlider

TheGimliGlider — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:42:27 +0000

You did the right thing by calling Customer Service and letting them know about it. She is indeed a danger to passengers when and if an in-flight emergency occurs. Believe me or not, I can forgive and forget everything. Heck even Captain Sullenberger said to ATC that his flight number was 1539 while the correct no. was 1549, but if you repeatedly pressed the FA button and still nobody came to your assistance, that’s totally inexcusable and I’d do anything and everything in my power to have her fired.

I’ve flown to India, UAE, Singapore, Thailand, UK, Japan, Malaysia, Italy, Germany, Finland, Sweden & France on pleasure trips on an airlines which is the one and only national carrier in a poverty-stricken third-world south-east Asian country and I can swear on all gods that I’ve never even heard of such an incident during my entire life, nor do I expect to.

I strongly believe it’s the said airliner in question that should be brought to the attention of concerned authority and FAA.

By: Justin Brewer

Justin Brewer — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:12:48 +0000

‘m glad you wrote this one!! I hate poor customer service and laziness with a passion! This woman is a danger to all of her passengers and her lack of service must be addressed. She took how long to show up? Thank goodness no one was having a heart attack or terrorists were not taking over the cabin! She cannot even shut the call light off? She walked right by? She didn’t bother to research where the baggage could be located? What a horifically irresponsible woman. The amount of slacking takes effort! I’d like to see her scared straight with threatened job loss. I’ve had ENOUGH of unacceptable customer service and irresponsible people. If I applied her work ethics to my job, people would be killed. I wish you got more of a response than “thanks but we’ll never give you feedback on this.” I think that she’ll straighten up when she is observed by the company and then slack right off again when she feels secure.

Glad you brought it up!

Justin

By: Boyd Falconer

Boyd Falconer — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:11:25 +0000

Robert,

Did you make more out of this than was necessary?

No.

…that’s an emphatic ‘no’, by the way!

By: Mal Gormley

Mal Gormley — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 13:47:20 +0000

You are absolutely right to be worried about this woman, for exactly the reasons you stated. I’m glad you followed thru & called Continental but shame on them for not offering any follow up for you.

My worry is that the F/A may have been A. Tipsy, B. overtired (as you worried), C. Senile. In any event this just isn’t acceptable.

If anything that landing in the Hudson proved it is that a well-trained crew–the whole crew–is essential to a safe outcome in an emergency.