I’m currently rebuilding this blogs theme, and once it’s done there’ll be a new link on the sidebar connecting you to our facebook page. In the meantime I’ll just leave this here for you.
I posted a cool picture I took of Virgin Galactic’s landing strip on my Facebook page. You can follow this link to get to it.
Also, for the next week and a half or so I’m on Vacation! Hurray! I’ll be touring up through British Columbia and into the Yukon. While it’s unrelated to flying, I’ll probably post some updates on that anyway.
Finally; I recently flew on the only yellow aircraft in our fleet. Whenever I have the good fortune of flying on this aircraft I enjoy watching tourists pull out there camera’s to take pictures of it.
The other day we operated a PVR turn from Vancouver. I hadn’t done any PVR flights this season, but I recall them being pretty easy last season since it’s more or less a family destination.
The southbound flight wasn’t too out of the ordinary. It was a little busy, with call lights going off fairly often and a good number of people wanting drinks from the bar. However it wasn’t anything we weren’t used to. On this flight I was working in the galley. Shortly after our formal bar service a woman came into the galley and said to me,
“I think you should know there’s a man out here drinking alcohol from his own bottle.”
“Where?” I asked
“Just right out here.”
I peek out from behind the galley curtain and sure enough I can see the open bottle of Sailor Jerry Rum. He was sitting only 2 rows from the aft of the aircraft. I walked right out to him (As I got closer I recognised the slurred speech of someone who was very intoxicated.) Fantastic. We’re liable if ANYTHING happens because if his actions.
When I got to the row, I could see the girl he’s traveling with has taken the rum from him. She’s obviously had enough of him already. They both look up at me as I reach over and take the bottle of rum. I don’t say a word but just walk away. Once in my galley I stow the rum in a canister. I’m pretty sure everyone around saw me take the rum. I didn’t say anything while I did it, but my actions were clear enough to everyone that what was happening here wont be tolerated.
I called our Cabin Manager in the forward galley and informed her that I confiscated a bottle of rum from a passenger in 31C. I told her I hadn’t said anything to them yet, but once he sobers up a bit I’ll give him the riot act.
The woman who originally reported him then said to me that she didn’t want to be a rat, but she was concerned. I of course told her that it’s very appreciated the she told us. It’s for the safety of the individual and everyone around them that people can’t drink their own alcohol onboard. People don’t realize how quickly they are affected at high altitudes.
The rest of the flight was routine. Our friend in 31C was drunk, but harmless. The entire crew was advised of the situation and informed not to offer him any more alcohol. And while he was very talkative with those around him, he didn’t seem to be bothering anyone around him.
At 10 minutes to landing I returned to his seat. I gave the bottle to his traveling companion who had not been drinking and told her that the bottle goes into her carryon bag, and it stays there. I then turned to our inebriated friend and said, “And as for you. Drinking your own alcohol on a commercial aircraft is an offence. We’re giving you a warning today, but if you try this again you will be met by police at the gate.”
He was still a little too drunk to really understand the severity of what I was saying. I turned back to his friend and said “Make sure he know how serious I am.”
She was already beyond embarrassed by him, I could also tell she was pretty angry with him from the start of it all. She said to me, “Oh, I will.”
And that was it. We landed and they were gone. I figured it wasn’t worth getting the police involved this time since he was harmless throughout flight. And quite frankly he probably had a hell of a time trying to get through Mexican immigration in the state he was in. That’s probably punishment enough right there. They likely would have held him there for some time.
Once he was off the flight, a couple passengers who were near by came to the back to let me know they thought I handled the situation really well. I was glad to hear it.
Across my blog, email, and twitter I received some requests to take video and explain some of the things Flight Attendants do on a day to day basis. I had the opportunity to do so last week when we took an empty aircraft down to PUJ.
It’s going to take some time to get all the videos up. Most of them need to be edited to remove my airline’s logos which are everywhere! Especially in the galleys. The good news is I’ve finished putting together the first of the videos, which talks about he we work the inflight entertainment system. Check it out!
That’s not a metaphor. The toilet literally fell off the wall on one of my recent flights. I was sitting in the back galley when a passenger came out of the lav and said to me “Uhh.. it’s falling apart in there.”
“I’m sorry, what do you mean?”
“I sat down and the toilet came off the wall.”
I was dumbfounded. But sure enough he wasn’t exaggerating. (See picture) I called our Cabin Manager.
“Hi it’s jet. The toilet fell off the wall.”
CM: “What?”
Me: “You heard me.”
CM: “I’ll be right there…”
When she got to the aft, she saw the lav and started laughing. “Alright, close it off for now. I’ll log it for maintenance.”
That was it for the day. It broke on the inbound flight, so it didn’t cause too much trouble. We had two other working toilets, at the very worst the line ups moved a little more slowly.
The next day we had the same plane again. According to the log book, maintenance had fixed the toilet. Yay! But after take off, the first person to use that lav came out and said “Uhh, the toilet is broken.” “Again!” I said. He looked at me funny so I went on to explain it had broken the day before and maintenance said they fixed it.
I guess they figured they could just place it back on the wall? Anyways we logged it again as broken. The day after that it was actually fixed properly.
