Sliding.
As you know being a flight attendant is not all about handing up snacks and complimentary beverages, although some of us pay less attention during the safety demonstration, flight attendants are charged with ensuring that you and your fellow passengers are safe in the event of an emergency. While you might be able to get away by glancing quickly at a safety booklet, they undergo extensive training. At the training center for Singapore Airlines, safety is a huge part of the extensive training that the flight attendants experience. If you've seen those giant yellow rubber inflatable slides, that are used to exit a plane safely in case of an emergency, just know that flight attendants have to practice sliding down those slides safely. Sadly, its not as much as you expect it to be. These slides cause contact burns from the friction caused by sliding down them. That's why seasoned travelers know that you should wear pants and a jacket just in case for your own safety. However, for this safety training they are required to wear protective suits as they are required to slide down so many times. Although they are experts by the end of the training, nut it's a bummer that something that's so exciting ends up being so exhausting to train for.
Safety.
For flight attendants, safety is not all about sliding down the slides, they need to be prepared for any and all potential emergency situations. Flight attendants practice for water emergencies in a realistic wave pool. They also have a Cabin Simulator where they can practice proper exit procedures as they leave the safety of the planes cabin for the cold water of the wave pool. They can use computer programs on board the fake aircraft, in order to simulate different sorts of disasters so that they can practice responding appropriately. This 15 week training program has a tight schedule and safety is an enormous component of that. 15 weeks seems like a long time, it is even by flight industry standards, the program that the flight attendants go through is one of the longest in the industry. Each flight attendant is required to control a crisis situation and ensure the safety of all passengers within 90 seconds.
Appearance.
Attendants dont just learn to save you from a situation, they also learn how to apply a lipstick. Their lipstick must be plum coloured and their make up applied properly. And if you thought that only female attendants are expected to learn this.... we hate to break it, but men also have to. We earlier mentioned that the flight attendants spend a lot of their time on safety, they even learn how to roll their uniform if the plane plunges into freezing water. They also learn how to do their hair in one of the three accepted hair styles, Bob, Bun and French Twist.
Bravery.
A group of flight attendants in china undergo whats known as bravery training. Guided by a Kung-Fu Priest, these women make their way up the peaks of china's famous Lao Zhang Mountains and also they are required to wear their signature blue uniform and have their hair pulled back. At times they drew so close to the edge of the cliff, but clearly hieghts are something that these women are used to.
Hats Off.
Emirates is based in Dubai, U.A.E and is the fourth largest airline in terms of international passengers carried and scheduled distance flown. While they don't expect their flight attendants to go through 15 weeks of training, they do devote an entire day of their two week traing course to proper uniform and appearance. Yeah, being a flight attendant in the Emirates just wearing the uniform isn't enough, you have to wear it correctly. You are not supposed to wear any part of your uniform if you're not on duty and hats must be worn during specific parts of the flight and while walking through the airport. They are taught to wear their hats two finger width above their eyebrows and how to fold their scaves just the right way. The airline provides them with different lips sticks to try on during their training session, so that they can find the one that matches their hats and skin tones. They also learn to pull their hair back if its longer than the collar of their uniform although there is some flexibility when it comes to hair styles.
Self Defense.
Sometimes the right lipstick and a charming smile is enough to diffuse a negative situation, but other times the only option will be to use physical force in order to protect yourself and the other passengers. So most of the airlines train their flight attendants with self defense just in case they encounter a bad situation in the air. The course mainly covers how to identify and detect potential threats through a passenger's body languages. Attending these courses helps increase awareness and enhance its safety for both the crew members and passengers. While planes being hijacked is the worst nightmare more physical altercations do happen. especially when a passenger has too much to drink. By being able to identify and address the situation quickly, flight attendants can make the flight safer for everyone. Hiring a private security officer would be expensive and so would increase ticket cost. So piling another task to the flight attendant's plate is a much more suitable solution.
Extreme Observation.
While paying attention to your surroundings and knowing what you're looking for can help prevent a physical altercation. It can also be useful when it comes to stopping other types of crimes. Human trafficking is a serious issue and planes are often used to transport victims. In 2016 alone US immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 2000 human traffickers and those are just the ones that were caught flying. It's estimated that overall 50,000 women and young girls are brought into the United States for this purpose. To help combat this flight attendants are trained to look for human trafficking. Once a flight attendant saw a well dressed man with a very disheveled teenage girl. She knew that something about the man's demeanor was off. When she tried to have a conversation with the man she managed to get a note to the girl. The girl replied begging for help. The man was arrested by the police upon landing. Flight attendants are taught to report suspected incidents to the pilots immediately.
Aesthetic Requirements.
While it may not seem particularly, politically correct there are a lot of aesthetic requirements that flight attendants have to adhere. Some of these seem rather outdated but there is clearly no shortage of people who qualify and apply anyways. Irish airline Ryan Air requires its flight attendants to be between 5 feet 2 inches and 6 feet 2 inches in height and weight must be proportionate. Well after all you don't want your flight attendant stooping down to make their way down the aisle or struggling to reach the overhead bin. Emirates Airlines, requires their flight attendant to have a reach of 83 inches when standing on tiptoes. Many airlines do not allow any tattoos on wrists or their feet, as they cannot be covered up by their uniforms. Also if you need to have a position on board an aircraft you need to have a BMI deemed acceptable.
Perfect Smile.
Flight attendants like most people who work with the public are required to have a pleasant demeanor. A warm friendly smile can help reassure a nervous person on their very first flight or help soothe an irritated long time traveler. Some airlines in china refuse to risk ending up with a flight attendant with a less than perfect grin. Flight attendant's beauty, perfect height and flawless skin aren't enough, you also need to have ideal posture and a beautiful smile as well.
Until 1930, all flight attendant had to be men. Long hours, hectic schedules and unruly customers make the job of a flight attendant that much more difficult. Hopefully learning some of the intense and arduous training these employees go through, will give you a new appreciation for the person that hands you your complimentary beverages on your next flight.
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