Information about Flight Attendant

In aviation, flight attendants - formerly known as trolly dollies, sky girls, air hostesses, stewardesses or stewards - are members of a flight crew employed by airlines to ensure the safety and comfort of the passengers aboard commercial flights.

Overview

The primary and overriding responsibility of flight attendants is passenger safety. They are often tasked with the secondary function of seeing to the care and comfort of the passengers, insofar as this does not interfere with their safety responsibilities. They are often perceived by the flying public as waitresses or servants because only this latter function is normally seen outside the extremely rare event of in-flight emergency; and historically this perception has been portrayed by airlines in ads and commercials.

The role of a flight attendant ultimately derives from that of similar positions on passenger ships or passenger trains, but it has more direct involvement with passengers because of the confined quarters and often shorter travel times on aircraft. Additionally, the job of a flight attendant revolves around safety to a much greater extent than those of similar staff on other forms of transportation. Flight attendants on board a flight collectively form a cabin crew as distinguished from pilots and engineers on the flight deck.

Outside the exceptional case of an in-flight emergency, flight attendants usually provide courtesy services for passengers, such as preparation and distribution of in-flight meals and drinks, management of in-flight entertainment systems, sale of duty-free and other merchandise, and the like. As the most visible representatives of their airlines, their importance to customer relations and the image of their airlines is considerable.

Many jurisdictions mandate the presence of flight attendants on commercial aircraft, based on the passenger capacity of the aircraft and other factors. This mandate generally relates only to their function as safety technicians.

Qualifications

Training

Flight attendants are normally trained in the hub or headquarters city of an airline over a period that may run from six weeks to six months, depending on the country. The main focus of training is safety. One flight attendant is required for every 50 passenger seats on board in the United States, but many airlines have chosen to increase that number. One of the most elaborate training facilities was Breech Academy opened by Trans World Airlines in 1969 in Overland Park, Kansas, U.S. Other airlines also sent their attendants to the school. The advent of deregulation caused the school's viability to decline and it closed around 1988.

Safety training includes, but is not limited to: emergency passenger evacuation management, use of evacuation slides / life rafts, in-flight fire fighting, survival in the jungle / sea / desert / ice, first aid (including specialised first aid procedures in flight emergencies), Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), defibrillation, ditching / emergency landing procedures, decompression emergencies, Crew Resource Management and security.

Language

Multilingual flight attendants are often in demand to accommodate international travellers. The languages most in demand, other than English, are Mandarin, Korean, Cantonese, Japanese, French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Height and weight

Some airlines, such as EVA Air, have height requirements for purely aesthetic purposes. Horizon Air and other regional carriers have height restrictions because their aircraft have low ceilings. A typical acceptable range is from 5'2" (1.57 m) to 6'0" (1.83 m).

Flight attendants are also subject to weight requirements as well. Weight must usually be in proportion to height; persons outside the normal range may not be qualified to act as flight attendants.

History

The first flight attendant, a steward, was reportedly a man on the German Zeppelin LZ10 Schwaben in 1911. Imperial Airways of the United Kingdom had "cabin boys" or "stewards"; in the 1920s. In the USA, Stout Airways was the first to employ stewards in 1926, working on Ford Trimotor planes between Detroit and Grand Rapids, Michigan. Western Airlines (1928) and Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) (1929) were the first US carriers to employ stewards to serve food. Ten-passenger Fokker aircraft used in the Caribbean had stewards in the era of gambling trips to Havana, Cuba from Key West, Florida. The first female flight attendant^[1] was a 25-year-old registered nurse named Ellen Church. Hired by United Airlines in 1930; she also first envisioned nurses on aircraft.

Other airlines followed suit, hiring nurses to serve as stewardesses on most of their flights. The requirement to be a registered nurse was relaxed at the start of World War II, as so many nurses enlisted into the armed forces.

Uniforms

The first stewardess uniforms were designed to be durable, practical, and inspire confidence in passengers. The first stewardesses for United Airlines wore green berets, green capes and nurse's shoes. Other airlines, such as Eastern Air Lines, actually dressed stewardesses in nurses' uniforms.

Perhaps reflecting the military aviation background of many commercial aviation pioneers, many early uniforms had a strongly military appearance; hats, jackets, and skirts showed simple straight lines and military details like epaulettes and brass buttons. Many uniforms had a summer and winter version, differentiated by colours and fabrics appropriate to the season: navy blue for winter, for example, khaki for summer. As the role of women in the air grew, and airline companies began to realise the publicity value of their stewardesses, more feminine lines and colours began to appear in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Some airlines began to commission designs from high-end department stores and still others called in noted designers or even milliners to create distinctive and attractive apparel.

In advertising

In the 1960s and 1970s, many airlines began advertising the attractiveness and friendliness of their stewardesses. National Airlines began a "Fly Me"; campaign using attractive stewardesses with taglines such as "I'm Lorraine. Fly me to Orlando." (A low budget 1973 film about three flight attendants, Fly Me, starring Lenore Kasdorf, was based on the ad campaign.) Braniff International Airways, presented a campaign known as the "Air Strip" with similarly attractive young stewardesses changing uniforms mid-flight.^[2] A policy of at least one airline required that only unmarried women could be flight attendants.^[3]

Unions

Flight attendant unions were formed, beginning at United Airlines in the 1940s, to negotiate improvements in pay, benefits and working conditions.^[4] Those unions would later challenge what they perceived as sexist stereotypes and unfair work practises such as age limits, size limits, limitations on marriage, and prohibition of pregnancy. Many of these limitations have been lifted by judicial mandates. The largest flight attendants union is the Association of Flight Attendants, representing over 50,000 flight attendants at 22 airlines within the US.

In the UK, cabin crew can be represented by either Cabin Crew '89 or the larger Transport and General Workers' Union.

In Australia, flight attendants are represented by the Flight Attendants Association of Australia (FAAA). There are two divisions: one for international crews (Long Haul) and one for domestic crews (Short Haul).

Discrimination

Airline managers commonly subjected flight attendants to various forms of discrimination from the early days of the profession until the 1990s.^[5] Flight attendants at US-based airlines, and others as well, were forced to resign or were fired if they got married, if they were overweight, wore eyeglasses, if they turned 30 years of age (or 32 at some airlines). These discriminatory policies came under attack in the US after passage of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Flight attendant unions like the Association of Flight Attendants used Title VII, in the courts and at the bargaining table, to bring an end to such practices and recognize the professionalism of the flight attendant career. The no-marriage rule was eliminated throughout the US airline industry by the 1980s.^[6] The last such broad categorical discrimination, the weight restrictions^[7] were eliminated in the 1990s through litigation and negotiations.^[8] By the end of the 1970s, the term stewardess had generally been replaced by the gender-neutral, and more wordy, alternative flight attendant. Recently the term cabin crew'' has begun to replace 'flight attendants' because of the term's recognition of their role as members of the crew.

September 11, 2001

The role of flight attendants received heightened prominence after the September 11, 2001 attacks when flight attendants (such as Sandra W. Bradshaw and CeeCee Lyles of United Airlines Flight 93, Robert Fangman of United Airlines Flight 175, Renee May of American Airlines Flight 77 and Betty Ong and Madeline Amy Sweeney of American Airlines Flight 11) actively attempted to protect passengers from assault, and also provided vital information to air traffic controllers on the hijackings.^[9]

In the wake of the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, many flight attendants at major airlines were laid off because of decreased passenger loads.<ref name="FAH" />

Roles in an emergency

Actions of flight attendants in emergencies have long been credited in saving lives; in the United States, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and other aviation authorities view flight attendants as essential for safety, and are thus required on Part 121 aircraft operations. Studies, some done in light of British Airtours Flight 28M, have concluded that assertive cabin crew are essential for the rapid evacuation of airplanes.^[10][11] Notable examples of cabin crew actions include:

• Scandinavian Airlines Flight 751, when cabin crew recognized an emergency landing was imminent and commanded the passengers to "bend down...hold your knees" to adopt the brace position.^[12]
• Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 529, whose sole flight attendant provided emergency briefings, brace and evacuation commands to the passengers when the Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia aircraft sustained serious damage to one of its engines and crash landed. The NTSB acccident report commended "the exemplary manner in which the flight attendant briefed the passengers and handled the emergency".^[13]
• British Airways Flight 5390, in which a flight attendant was able to prevent a pilot from being lost through a cockpit window that had failed.
• Southern Airways Flight 242, on which the cabin crew provided safety briefings to their passengers, and on their own initiative, warned passengers of the impending crash by commanding passengers to adopt the brace position. At least one flight attendant is known to have assisted in rescuing trapped passengers.^[14]
• Air Florida Flight 90, in which the lone surviving flight attendant passed the only lifevest she could find to another passenger. She is recognized in the NTSB report for this "unselfish act."^[15]
• TWA flight attendant Uli Derickson who protected passengers during the TWA Flight 847 hijacking by assisting with negotiation efforts.
• TWA Flight 843, when a TWA Lockheed L-1011 aircraft crashed after an aborted takeoff in 1992 and was destroyed by fire. Nine flight attendants, along with five off-duty flight attendants, evacuated all 292 persons on board without loss of life. The NTSB in their after accident reported noted, "The performance of the flight attendants during the emergency was exceptional and probably contributed to the success of the emergency evacuation."^[16][17]
• On British Airways Flight 2069, cabin crew stopped the plane from being crashed by a mentally ill passenger.^[18]
• Crew on American Airlines Flight 63 prevented shoe bomber Richard Colvin Reid from blowing up the plane.^[19]
• Flight attendants on Qantas Flight 1737 prevented their plane from being hijacked by a passenger with mental health issues. Two of them were taken to hospital with stab wounds.^[20]
• Aloha Airlines Flight 243 suffered a decompression which tore an 18-foot section of fuselage away from the plane. Despite her injuries, flight attendant Michelle Honda crawled up and down the aisle reassuring passengers.^[21]
• Senior Purser Neerja Bhanot saved the lives of passengers and crew when Pan Am Flight 73 was hijacked. She was killed while protecting children from the terrorists. After her death she received the Special Courage Award from the United States Department of Justice.
• Flight Attendants on Air Canada Flight 797 used procedures which were not specifically taught in training such as instruction passengers to open over wing window exits to allow passengers to evacuate quicker, moving passengers to the front of the aircraft to move them away from the fire and smoke, and passing out towels for passengers to cover their nose and mouths with while the cabin was filling with smoke.

Notable flight attendants

• Kathy Augustine, was a flight attendant prior to entering Nevada politics
• Regina Bird, Big Brother Australia 2003 winner
• Deborah Burlingame, sister of Charles "Chic" Burlingame III, the pilot of hijacked American Airlines Flight 77
• Sherylynn Butt, beauty pageant winner
• Terence Cao, veteran Singaporean actor
• Ellen Church, first flight attendant in history
• Ester Cordet, Playmate
• Uli Derickson, on duty during TWA Flight 847 hijacking
• Brian Dowling, UK Big Brother 2001 winner
• Gaëtan Dugas, alleged Patient Zero for the AIDS pandemic in the USA.
• Sandra Force, beauty pageant winner
• Jennifer Hosten, 1970 Miss World winner
• Suzen Johnson, mistress of Frank Gifford
• Evangeline Lilly - Canadian actress
• Jan Brown Lohr - Lobbied in Washington for lap babies' safety belts after the crash of United 232
• Catherine Maunoury, French winner of the Aerobatics World Championship in 1988 and 2000
• Avis Miller, Playmate
• Rustom Padilla, Filipino actor, Pinoy Big Brother Celebrity Edition contestant
• Froso Papaharalambous, singer
• Michelle Parma, participant in Our First Time hoax
• Iris Peterson, flew for United Airlines from 1946 until 2007, retiring at the age of 85
• Linda Louise Rowley, former beauty queen who held the title Miss Alaska USA
• Lee Seung-yeon, Korean actress/talkshow host
• Ellen Simonetti, first flight attendant to be fired for blogging
• Tania Soni, beauty pageant winner
• Silver Tree, writer and producer
• Vesna Vulović, Guinness World Record holder for surviving the highest fall without a parachute
• Julie Woodson, Playmate
• Ziana Zain, Malaysian model, singer and actress

Flight attendants in Pop-culture Portrayals

• 1965: Boeing Boeing Jerry Lewis and Tony Curtis comedy.
• 1968: In , there is a flight attendant wearing gravity shoes and a uniform with the Pan Am logo. The attendant has the classic scene when she uses her shoes to walk upside down to the cockpit. Ironically, Pan Am ended operations in 1991, 10 years before the movie was to have taken place.
• A 1973 low budget movie, Fly Me, featured three sexy stewardesses. The film starred Lenore Kasdorf.
• 1975: Karen Black plays a flight attendant forced to control the aircraft following a mid-air collision in Airport 1975.
• 1980: The movie Airplane! satirizes earlier aircraft-disaster movies and features flight attendants behaving absurdly.
• 1985: The Replacements recorded a song called "Waitress in the Sky," about the drearier aspects of the work.
• 1986: Hanna Schygulla played a flight attendant in the movie The Delta Force loosely based on the hijacking of TWA Flight 847.
• 1992: Elizabeth Hurley played a terrorist posing as a flight attendant in the action film Passenger 57.
• 1994: Two Saturday Night Live sketches featured Total Bastard Airlines flight attendants (played by David Spade and Helen Hunt) wishing their passengers a dismissive "Buh-bye."
• 1994: The Simpsons episode "Fear of Flying" reveals that Marge Simpson's father was a steward (though at first Marge shamefully called him a "stewardess") during a time when flight attendants were predominantly female.
• 1996: Halle Berry played a flight attendant in the movie Executive Decision where she tried to help save a hijacked Oceanic Airlines flight. She performed opposite Kurt Russell.
• 1997: The Quentin Tarantino film Jackie Brown centers on a "stewardess" involved in criminal activity.
• 1997: The Robert Butler film Turbulence is about a flight attendant who pilots a commercial airplane after both pilots are murdered.
• 2002: Flight attendants are essential to Frank Abagnale (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) in his attempts to pass himself off as a PanAm pilot, in the factional film Catch Me if You Can.
• 2003: Gwyneth Paltrow, Kelly Preston, Candice Bergen, and Christina Applegate portray flight attendants in the comedy film View from the Top.
• 2003-2005: Mile High is a British television comedy/drama centering around the lives of several flight attendants.
• 2004: Catherine Zeta-Jones plays a flight attendant in the film The Terminal.
• 2005: Kirsten Dunst plays a flight attendant in the film Elizabethtown.
• 2005: The independent film The Aviary is centered around the sentimental and professional life of a flight attendant. The writer and producer, Silver Tree, was a flight attendant herself.
• 2005: Erika Christensen, Kate Beahan and Bess Wohl play key roles as flight attendants in the movie Flightplan.
• 2006: A Japanese dorama, Attention Please, chronicles an unlikely girl (portrayed by Aya Ueto) training to be a flight attendant for Japan Airlines.
• 2006: The Travel Channel began airing a reality television show, Flight Attendant School, which follows trainees for Frontier Airlines.
• 2007: The United Kingdom's Eurovision Song Contest entrants were the band Scooch. They dressed as flight attendants for the dance routine to their song "Flying the Flag (for You)."

See also

• In-flight safety demonstration

References

External links

Aviation refers to all activities involving the operation of heavier-than-air aircraft, machines designed for atmospheric flight. The term also describes the organizations and regulatory bodies as well as the personnel related with the operation of aircraft and the industries
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Aircrew members, often just called aircrew, may include pilots, flight attendants, navigators, TACCOs, flight engineers, signallers, observers, (air) gunners, weapons specialists, loadmasters, rescue swimmers or divers, and various electronics system operators depending on
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airline provides air transport services for passengers or freight, generally with a recognized operating certificate or license. Airlines lease or own their aircraft with which to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for mutual benefit.
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passenger is a term broadly used to describe any person who travels in a vehicle, but bears little or no responsibility for the tasks required for that vehicle to arrive at its destination.
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A passenger airline is an airline dedicated to the transport of passengers. Cf. cargo airline. Passenger airlines usually operate a fleet of passenger aircraft which, rather then being owned outright, are usually leased from commercial aircraft sales and leasing companies such as
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ship is a large watercraft capable of offshore navigation. Ships may be operated by:

• Governments (military, rescue, research, transportation)
• Private companies and institutions (transportation, offshore resources, research)
• Individuals (large yachts, research).

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passenger car is a piece of railway rolling stock that is designed to carry passengers. Most often, the term passenger car is associated with equipment that resembles a coach or sleeping car, but it can also encompass several other specialized types of equipment, including
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aircraft is a vehicle which is able to fly through the air (or through any other atmosphere). All the human activity which surrounds aircraft is called aviation. (Most rocket vehicles are not aircraft because they are not supported by the surrounding air).
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flight deck of an aircraft carrier is the surface from which its aircraft take off and land, essentially a miniature airfield at sea. On smaller naval ships which do not have aviation as a primary mission, the landing area for helicopters and other VTOL aircraft is also referred to
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airline meal or In-flight meal is a meal served to passengers onboard a commercial airliner. These meals are prepared specifically for this purpose by special airline catering services.
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An airline hub is an airport that an airline uses as a transfer point to get passengers to their intended destination. It is part of a hub and spoke model, where travelers moving between airports not served by direct flights change planes en route to their destinations.
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Motto
"In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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Breech Academy (also called Breech Training Academy) was a school operated by Trans World Airlines to train flight attendants. It was named for TWA executive Ernest R. Breech.
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TW ICAO
TWA Callsign
TWA
Founded 1925 (as Western Air Express)
Hubs Lambert-Saint Louis International Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport
Ceased Operation 2001 (integrated into American Airlines)
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Overland Park, Kansas

Seal
Location within the state of Kansas
Coordinates:
Country United States
State Kansas
County Johnson
Government
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State of Kansas

Flag of Kansas Seal
Nickname(s): The Sunflower State
Motto(s): Ad astra per aspera

Official language(s) English^[1]

Capital Topeka
Largest city Wichita
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Deregulation is the process by which governments remove, reduce, or simplify restrictions on business and individuals with the intent of encouraging the efficient operation of markets.
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evacuation slide is an inflatable slide used to evacuate an aircraft quickly. An escape slide is required on all commercial (passenger carrying) aircraft where the door sill height is such that, in the event of an evacuation, passengers would be unable to "step down" from the door
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lifeboat is a boat designed to save the lives of people in trouble at sea. The term is used for vessels carried by ships to allow passengers and crew to escape in an emergency.
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Firefighting is the act of extinguishing destructive fires. A firefighter fights these fires and prevents destruction of life, property and the environment. Firefighting is a highly technical profession which requires years of training and education in order to become
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First aid is the provision of limited care for an illness or injury, which is provided, usually by a lay person, to a sick or injured patient until definitive medical treatment can be accessed, or until the illness or injury is dealt with (as not all illnesses or injuries will
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Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an emergency medical procedure for a victim of cardiac arrest or, in some circumstances, respiratory arrest.^[1] CPR is performed in hospitals, or in the community by laypersons or by emergency response professionals.
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Defibrillation is the definitive treatment for the life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias ventricular fibrillation and pulseless ventricular tachycardia. Defibrillation consists of delivering a therapeutic dose of electrical energy to the affected heart with a device called a
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A water landing is, in the broadest sense, any landing on a body of water. All waterfowl, those seabirds capable of flight, and some human-built vehicles are capable of landing in water as a matter of course.
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emergency landing is a non-planned landing made by an aircraft in response to a crisis which either interferes with the operation of the aircraft or involves sudden medical emergencies necessitating diversion to the nearest airport.
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Explosive decompression (ED) refers to a sudden marked drop in the pressure of a system that occurs in less than 0.1 seconds, associated with explosive violence. Generally it results from some sort of material fatigue or engineering failure, causing a contained system to
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Crew (or Cockpit) Resource Management (CRM) training originated from a NASA workshop in 1979 that focused on improving air safety. The NASA research presented at this meeting found that the primary cause of the majority of aviation accidents was human error, and that the main
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multilingualism can refer to an occurrence regarding an individual speaker who uses two or more languages, a community of speakers where two or more languages are used, or between speakers of different languages.
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English}}} 
Writing system: Latin (English variant) 
Official status
Official language of: 53 countries
Regulated by: no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1: en
ISO 639-2: eng
ISO 639-3: eng  
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