Travel

Cabin crew secrets: Pilot reveals what really happens when away with flight attendants


Flights see pilots and cabin crew working together to make sure the passengers get safely and comfortably to their destination. On long-haul routes, they are often all put up at hotels for at least one night. So what really happens between the flight attendants and pilots – are the stories of bed-hopping true? American pilot Patrick Smith has revealed his experience of the goings-on in his book Cockpit Confidential.

Those hoping for sordid details might well be disappointed. When asked if there is “hanky-panky” going on between the pilots and cabin crew, Smith says: “If so, I have long been excluded from it.

“All in all, it’s probably not much different from any other work environment, though things are maybe faster and looser, which is to say younger, at the regionals.

“In 2003 two Southwest Airlines pilots were terminated for going au naturel in flight.

“I don’t know what happened, and I should probably withhold judgement as these sorts of things have a way of becoming disordered when stripped, if you will, of context.”

However, Smith went onto reveal there was an episode when he removed his clothes during a flight  – but it wasn’t for a risqué reason 

“It was the summer of 1995 and a pavement-melting heatwave was sweeping across the Midwest,” he said.

“I was based in Chicago as a first officer on a sixty-four seat ATR-72. The European-built ATR is a sophisticated plane, but in all that wiring and plumbing they forgot the air conditioning.

“Tiny eyeball vents blow out tepid wisps of air. On this particular day, a superheated haze had settled over O’Hare, pushing the temperature to 107 degrees.

“I was up front finishing my pre-flight checks and waiting for the captain. I was so hot that I could hardly move. So I took my shirt and tie off.

“Pilot shirts, which are mostly polyester, are uncomfortable enough in a perfect climate. Crank the heat and it’s like wearing chain mail. I also removed my shoes.”

“The captain arrived – a large slow-moving fellow in his fifties who I’d never met before. He stepped into the cockpit and discovered his first officer drenched in perspiration, dehydrated, wearing only his trousers and a Sony headset,

“He didn’t speak at first. Then he sat down, turned to me, and asked calmly, ‘You are going to put your clothes back on aren’t you?’

“I told him I’d get dressed as soon as the inside temperature fell below 95 degrees, provided I was still conscious. I offered to put a T-shirt on, but the only one I could reach, from my hand luggage, was a Hüsker Dü Metal Circus tour shirt – an artefact from 1983, as greasy and discoloured as the burning Chicago sky.

“‘Arright, fine,’ said the captain. ‘Just don’t let anyone see you.’ And so I flew bare-chested, all the way to Lansing and back.”

A former flight attendant has revealed her own experience of what went on while crew and pilots were away. 

The ex cabin crew member told Stuff.co.nz: “If you think about stories in your own workplace, when do scandals often happen? Work trips. Well, our job is all one big work trip, so as you would expect, it does happen.”

Passengers also try to romance cabin crew while they’re at work, the attendant added.

“I’ve had business cards slipped to me, notes scribbled on napkins,” the crew member said. “It doesn’t happen a lot – but coming into contact with so many people, eventually, you’re going to get someone trying their luck.”



READ SOURCE

Leave a Reply

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.