Folk Hero?

New Post coming on Monday 23 August:


I'm afraid that I don't comprehend the "folk hero" status that a specific jetBlue flight attendant has recently acquired. Yes, the job is tough; any job dealing with the public in the service industry is difficult. Yes, the pay and benefits are less than desired and as companies tighten their belts and layoff, the job becomes even more difficult. 

Add to this flight cancellations, long delays, waiting for gates, lost luggage, missed connections, entertainment systems that don't work, failed catering, medical emergencies, unaccompanied minors, diverse personalities and individual passenger problems and it's easy to see that flight attendants, sharing space in a small tube with angry, sometimes abusive passengers have a very difficult job.

But using the PA to hurl expletives at a plane load of those passengers, opening a cabin door, activating an emergency exit slide endangering ramp personnel below and deserting your crew with a "couple of beers" across the tarmac is not worthy of praise. For an airliner to operate safely, discipline and order are mandatory. As flight attendants often say, "we're here for safety purposes." And they are, but this one abandoned his responsibilities and his shipmates.

Flight attendants get a "bum rap" from my viewpoint as a captain. In today's high security environment I sit isolated, locked in the forward most compartment in a long tube, far removed from circumstances behind me with as many as 225 fellow human beings. This is an unnatural and often anxiety filled, pressurized environment, passing through the stratosphere at 80% of the speed of sound, seven miles above the earth. I'm completely reliant upon level headed, objective, well trained flight attendants maintaining order and keeping me in the loop as to our general condition. The decisions that I make, the course of action that I follow are often predicated upon information that I acquire from my flight attendants. They are my eyes and ears in the passenger cabin and play a significant role in the course of events throughout the entire flight.

A crew member who abandons his crew, leaves the aircraft and its human content more vulnerable should a crisis arise and deprives his captain of his input and skill in an emergency is not someone with whom I'd choose to fly. My admiration goes to those flight attendants who do the job day in and day out with little to no fanfare. Those whom my crew, our passengers and I can rely upon at all times. This covers just about every flight attendant that I've flown with over the last 35 years.

Thanks for a job well done and making this captains decision making process a little easier.