Most people associate flight attendants with people who serve chicken or beef and perform safety demonstrations. While ‘food and beverage’ service is part of their job, it is not their primary reason for joining. Flight attendants are the first responders during in-flight emergencies, and this is the value of a flight attendant that everyone should be aware of.
Flight attendants rush to put out a fire if one breaks out inside the cabin. Flight attendants are the first to respond to passengers in need of assistance during medical emergencies such as childbirth, choking, and other medical emergencies.
Cabin crew members are the first responders during an emergency crash landing, rescuing all passengers in less than 90 seconds. In fact, cabin crew members spend a lot of time training for something they hope never happens: emergencies.
Real medical emergencies on board where flight attendants mattered most
There are numerous stories of flight attendants going above and beyond the call of duty to assist their passengers. To name a few, Gold Pareno, a Philippine Airlines flight attendant, went viral after she and another flight attendant, Danica Panganiban, assisted a passenger giving birth on a flight from Dammam to Manila. On a Cebu Pacific flight, F/A Genebelle Quilo and her colleagues assisted a passenger in giving birth on board.
Not to mention the time Patrisha Organo, a PAL Express flight attendant, breastfed a passenger’s baby on board! How about the story of Chet Encarnacion and Pamela Torre, two Philippine Airlines flight attendants who literally fed disabled passengers on two separate flights? Do you recall the incident in which a Cebu Pacific cabin crew team led by flight steward Ralph Perez and flight attendants Kat Chetandas and Lisha Licauco both assisted in the resuscitation of a passenger who had suffered a heart attack?
These are just a few examples of the numerous occasions when flight attendants put their training and abilities to use. The majority of these incidents go unreported, usually only within the airline.
Flight attendants are uniformed personnel on board who remind me of soldiers
Our soldiers’ primary responsibility is to protect citizens from enemies and to defend a country and its constitution. They go through a rigorous training program for years in order to fulfill their primary role, but since war is no longer common, they do other things such as help communities, maintain peace and order, and simply be on the lookout for threats. We never say, however, that “being a soldier is easy because all they do is guard and fire guns when someone invades.”
A flight attendant’s primary responsibility, on the other hand, is to ensure the safety and security of all passengers on board the aircraft. Comfort, care, a great flying experience, and service come second. Unfortunate emergency situations are extremely rare, but flight attendants undergo rigorous training to deal with them. They are trained in first aid, rescuing passengers in the water during a water landing, evacuating passengers from an aircraft in less than 90 seconds, CPR, fire fighting, and other calamitous situations.
Despite this, many people do not recognize the true value of a flight attendant and instead say, “It’s easy to be a flight attendant because all they do is safety demo and serve chicken and beef.”
No one enjoys emergencies, but flight attendants, like firefighters, nurses, doctors, and police officers, are the first responders in the air during emergencies. That is the importance of flight attendants that you must be aware of.
The real value of a flight attendant
The true value of a flight attendant is not seen when you are served your in-flight meals and performing safety demonstrations; that is only a tenth of their true value. A cabin crew’s true value is demonstrated when they revive a passenger, assist a passenger in giving birth to a healthy baby, feed passengers with disabilities, carry injured passengers off a burning aircraft on their backs and return to rescue more, and are the last to leave a burning aircraft to ensure all other lives are safe and away from danger.
That is the value of a flight attendant: to save and bring lives. That’s why they worked so hard.
We rarely encounter such emergency or unfortunate situations on board an aircraft, but when they do, your flight attendants are trained and prepared.
Indeed, the value of a flight attendant is priceless because they save and bring life on board.
That is the value of a flight attendant! It is priceless because it deals with human lives.
First love never dies. I fell in love with airplanes and aviation when I was a kid. My dream was to become a pilot, but destiny led me to another path: to be an aviation digital media content creator and a small business owner. My passion for aviation inspires me to bring you quality content through my website and social accounts. Aviation is indeed in my blood and blog!
