“A Bright Idea!”

As it is my standby month so far I have been called out for only one flight. The  standby or on- call days are the ones an airhostess would spend mostly at home staring at the computer; mostly on Facebook re arranging the friends list. My days off that were not pre- scheduled were spent online, or even sometimes talking to my washing machine.

Things get pretty bad during the standby month. The standbys’ has to be available if another crew calls in sick or turns out to be absent for a duty.  Annoyingly enough the standbys have no clue where they are heading to next, thus we have to pack a ready to go suitcase that tends to be heavier than the usual.

These are the days of mental torture having no space for leisure or to plan a simple dinner with friend. Especially when that phone rings; it is the fear of the unknown. If the call is from the crew scheduling team, typically the first communiqué to escape would be an exasperated “Oh no!” or a pacified “Oh Yes!” depending where they want us to go. 

When I picked up that phone it was a silent “oh no” associated with relief to be finally flying.  Dhaka is full of surprises. However I don’t complain that it is a turn-around flight.  We carry some of the most understanding yet naive passengers to and from this destination.

It was one of those flights some crew just couldn’t stand, as crowd control tends to be very difficult, and it is a must to refrain using the lavatory, until we get back home. Also the air route we take over our neighbouring Indian air space tends to be very bumpy. At least half way through the flight, crew and passengers are advised to take their seats to minimize any injury that may occur.

Yes it is normal for smaller aircrafts to be treated vigorously by the jet streams. However due to language barriers, or simple ignorance it is not very easy to control the crowd during this anticipated turbulence.

Most of all I think it just gets on their nerves to see the crew seated. Fair logic, I am paying them to serve me and why on earth are they seated? (Exclusion is the definition of severe turbulence; the cabin is so bumpy, things are almost flying around, passengers are pressing against the seat belt harshly, it is difficult to stand and serve a drink without pouring it all over.)

As time goes by we get used to serving while the plane rocks side to side like a boat. This sudden movement in the cabin also excites people too much, they start ignoring all the important P.A’s made by the captain.

One such P.A. made was the suspension of serving hot liquids- Tea & Coffee in this instance as many people refer to Alcohols as hotter drinks served on-board. There was one impatient customer for his cup of tea, and he was very serious about getting served right away.

At this point my verbal communication has failed to convince this customer, so I decided to use my advanced body language skills. Trying my best to imply that it is not possible to serve tea or coffee due to safety reasons at this point, I kept on pointing at the seat belt sign illuminated right on top of his head next to the air vents.  For a split second he stared at it, and then started poking at the seat belt sign holding his tea cup right under the vents screaming “Chai Chai”!

This was devotedly followed by the rest. Well who thought we’ll be carrying smart tablets on our hands instead of a bulky personal computer a decade back? Every innovation man produced, started with one such bright idea. No matter how much a third world country can be far away from the technological advancement, I will never forget this gentlemen who came up with this bright idea to make future airhostess’ life more easier. Who knows maybe in 2020 tea coffee will be pouring down the air vents of an aircraft at a touch of a button!

Love, Dany.