Humanity At First Flight …

If the time spent on a night flight was a tiring one for all, because of the lack of sleep, it was always comforting to know that, after a late meal, people were fed and tired and sleep would fall upon them.

Thus a kind of quietness…filled the cabin with the plane’s motors humming in the background, to accompany the night.

Another beneficial aspect of a flight eastbound was its length. With winds blowing the favourable direction, the time spent in the air was logically shorter than the other way around.

Fresh as I was as a trainee, choice of work stations was not yet available.  So it fell upon me to be assigned to the last one, the most unpopular station as I had guessed it was for many of my sisters.

I didn’t know why then but…I would soon realize the implications. 

Although I was still working with the same crew from New York, it became obvious to me that already on our crew briefing before the beginning of this round trip, having information for both flights, most chose more in relation to the return. It didn’t take me long to understand the reason.

 A flight from Rome, Italy to New York/JFK departed from Fiumicino airport at noon.

In other words, day duty on a long westbound route during the summer months meant I would be working the cabin service in coach with a full passenger load along a desperately narrow aisle!

Again, similarly to the night flight, I stood at the class divider to do my usual demonstration routine, oxygen mask and life vest, but now daytime made it a whole different experience.

Looking at me, an ocean of faces, bright and lively now.

 My eyes in a single glance embracing the whole “human “cabin and within me, I would feel again the nervous tingles of excitement, a positive tension.

The deep emotional pumping of adrenaline when control invaded my heart feeling the awesome powers of the job!

I had in front of me a relatively attentive audience, this time more hungry than sleepy…noisier in their own world! Now, my presence was falling into appreciative eyes.

What distracts someone more from own thoughts is to look at someone else who entertains with a quality that is greater, hence making up for the boredom of watching such routine and for both parties.

 

My miming a “potential” situation, with the positive but professional body movements, along an honest smile, I would imaginatively point my fingers with the semi-comic seriousness of fitting an unusual object over one’s nose and mouth, to breathe in mask properly…then followed by the act of putting on the life vest after fumbling with the straps, it became so original that people loved it, I could see!

All done in good taste, naturally, and in total respect for the profession.

In my youth, I also knew that whether I had performed well or people had watched, would be forgotten …for when the day a tragic reality would arrive to give us all another fate.

The important was that, no matter how hard or exhausting the service would be later on, after take-off, I would realize it was far more rewarding, on a day flight, to give and receive smiles and kindness, making my own world so much easier for the remainder of the flight, and so much heartier for my passengers…but again, it was only a question of having them on my…side which was won by the demonstration.

So right after, as we were still on the ground, I would move slowly towards the aft of the cabin, looking, observing, smiling and automatically checking the usual belts or the seatbacks, while inwardly “photographing” …humanity at first flight …just to “ feel “ the mood of my audience.

It was a happy one !

A love for humanity came over me, and watered and fertilised the fields of my inner world which had been lying fallow, and this love of humanity vented itself in a vast compassion…

                                                 - Georg Brandes -