Realities Of Life In The Air ...

In training, we learned a lot.

About the aircrafts, the cabin, the service and most important ...how to act in an emergency. From ditching at sea to crash on land…to the procedures of extinguishing a fire on-board to other unusual and dramatic situations, and always how to handle the human factor, our passengers on the day real danger would face us.

Therefore our training made us understand that, in case of any emergency, the most important decisive action was to get as many passengers as possible and, in record time,  out of the aircraft…!

We were never given the basics of the real world, regarding the passenger’s " psyche "...

Nor were we introduced to crisis psychology after a dramatic accident, nor into what I thought was even worse: the simple “ethics “of customer service in plain and normal situations.

How do we do that?

How do we forbid ourselves to treat a whole bunch of people like a pack of vulgar wolves and forget the individuality, the differences in each of them?

How much room do we have, by the way, considering the shortness of time?

We all know that any human, taken out of his/her usual homely environment, loses some vital rational cells in the brain, and allows a whole range of unfamiliar or hostile behaviours to blow out!

Whether they are aware of it remains to be seen.

For us, no matter how much we had or didn’t receive, we were also human, but additionally, what we understood about the job of Airline Hostess is the lessons that were hammered into us, day after day, by our professional instructors!

We were taught to believe we were superior humans, well bred, polished and proud TWA representatives for the whole world to watch and admire.

I could swear that this was what we were led to think. This made us so attractive.

We would lead the pack!

I was young and the ambition to prove to my supervisors that I was indeed well-fitted for the job was the only drive I felt…at first, and that was not difficult for me.

My upbringing, sophisticated and elegant, was a reflection of the strict discipline imposed by my French peers.

Not only from the catholic nuns…but also and primarily by my mother, the matriarch of the mansion. She taught me to never answer back, not matter how angry or unfair or frustrated I would feel inside.

Therefore it wasn’t difficult for me, in the beginning and no matter how hard I worked, to just assume and swallow. At first I was so keen to do a very good job, make my employer proud of me.

But, I didn’t take too many flights to figure that one out:

How long would I last, behaving like the perfect attendant who just smiled and nodded each time a nasty remark from an unsatisfied or obnoxious passenger was thrown my way?

When the service became a boring routine?

I was getting tired of being the “good girl “. The put-on was unbearable. The search for dynamism, excitement and the mere exploration into the adventurous world was leading me...

All I needed now was the Green Light!

Come Fly With Me?

Come Fly With Me ?

When I have written so much on how to operate the emergency equipment on-board, making the demonstration in front of so many people, you might have guessed I was describing a part of the job which I loved very much.

Yes, when I stood there and had the attention of our passengers who were enjoying my performance, for me it was the closest I had ever got to a career in life which would have been number one, had life circumstances allowed me to pursue it.

But I had a counsellor, a partner. It was my common sense, weighing the options offered to me…at the time, pushing me, and quickly making me decide, at the end, that it was more important to become independent.

This meant of course …supporting myself …financially.

That is the difference really when making choices in life.

I abandoned my talent, the one I should have encouraged, nurtured or forced out to emerge.

Because I knew times were not favourable for me then… towards that direction.

Consequently second to best, I opted for the few minutes of stardom, when  I had an audience to …kind of “ act “ the demonstration for, knowing it was the only occasion I had to show I could do better with it. Acting it was what I did, putting my soul in it… even though I knew this was not the stage I had wished.

When the demonstration was over, although I saw many happy people, donning my serving blouse on would send me back to anonymity. Efficiency would join in and my artistic personality would rest peacefully for awhile.

Hard work in the cabin would follow.

Back to the tough reality, it was nonetheless quite comforting to know that we did more “waitressing “than “rescuing “!

I always pushed limits, working hazardously to the point of endangering my own safety.

When the cabin was secured for take-off and I had rushed to buckle up in my jump-seat few seconds before lift-off, it was then the “hostessing” duties would take over.

The aircraft was barely off the ground, in the air, and still climbing that the liquor carts were already being unfolded. A full Boeing 707 demanded speed and organization. Space extremely limited and in narrow aisle. Navigate was definitely not what we did!

Filling them manually and according to the directives given in training, the three shelves were crammed with the multiple ingredients for the aperitifs soon to be served before lunch.

We worked fast, wordlessly with precise teamwork.

The seat-belt sign was still on when my colleague and I were already rolling liquor cart number one to begin the service at the first row in Coach…while the other liquor cart would start from the middle moving aft. And, unfortunately for those who longed to stretch out, the liquor carts fitted with a clinical perfection the aisle width…

When the seat-belt sign was turned off, and the non-smoking forbiddance lifted, an atmosphere close to mild pandemonium erupted.

From cigarette smoke slowly fogging the relative clear air of the beginning…to people having the basic human need to get up from their seats, to be “seen” or to move about, or queuing in the aisle to get a quick relief in another natural errand…that is when my acting excitement was quickly drenched with the cold shower of trivialities, suppressing the urge to admonish, sighing with-in but smiling politely with-out.

I confess I would let my body express the enduring moments with another kind of show… Gesturing emotions, like impatience or hopelessness, or frustration…I could do them and very well too.

But:

- “If you want to be served, you must give us the space we need to serve you …! “

Was the line I would hear in the beginning.

It was an opening phrase to a forthcoming sermon soon introduced “eloquently “to me… by a more senior hostess!

On a full day, nine hours flight like this one, and till we landed in New-York, I would never stop walking… 

Bon Appétit !

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 -