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My father, who was an aeronautical engineer and spent nearly four decades with Air India in its heyday, used to tell us that contrary to the wild imaginings of swinging stewards and stewardesses and romances between handsome pilots and air hostesses, cabin and cockpit crew in his time were expected to follow strict protocol and personal discipline.
Let alone alcohol intake, the captain and co-pilot were expected to avoid foods that were on their medical record as allergy-triggers and even foods that were considered common high-allergy such as shellfish, raw meat preps like steak tartare and caviar.
What’s more, the cockpit crew were expected to never eat the same meal before the flight – the reasoning being that if food poisoning struck, the entire crew wouldn’t be disabled.
Against this background of strict safety considerations, I was struck by two recent news items.
The first one said an airline captain preparing to lead a super long-haul flight failed a breathalyser test.
Considering that pilots are not usually pulled aside to be given such tests before a flight, it figures that he must have exhibited suspicious signs of intoxication for this to happen.
How could an adult entrusted with the safety of more than 400 (the normal long-haul payload) behave so carelessly? The mind boggles and the heart shudders.
The second news item said that an airline was considering hiring psychologists for troublesome passengers.
In a recent YouTube series on cabin crew training, a stewardess said that she had to draw on her peacekeeping negotiation skills more often than on her first aid knowledge.
Anybody who has sat next to stroppy co-passengers knows the sinking feeling of having to avoid confrontation and bullying during the flight and being constantly on guard.
Add alcohol to the mix and the combination becomes lethal.
I have seen so many passengers board a flight, already red-nosed from too many drinks in the airport lounge and then they proceed to demand more from the cabin crew. These days, airlines have empowered crew to deny intoxicants if the passenger is judged as having already crossed the limit of self-control. But that opens the case to aggressive argument and unpleasantness.
Call me a spoilsport now, but why not nip the problem in the bud and simply stop serving alcohol in-flight?
We did that for cigarettes and all of us breathe better.
Mind you, aviation lore has it that cigarettes were stopped in flights not because of passenger passive smoking concerns but because it was found that the exhaled tobacco residue weakened the seals on the aircraft doors!
As passengers – especially in the Gulf, where most of us use air travel regularly – we need a new Charter of Rights that goes beyond fare concerns.
As aircraft design evolves to get bigger and stuff more sardines – err, passengers – into each flight, we need also to fight for more accountability from crew as well as better behaviour from fellow passengers.
Until then, I’ll vote for a welcome psychologist in every crew roster – for the passengers as well as the crew!
meeraresponse@gmail.com
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