IF I Were A Flight Attendant  

When I was a child, I dreamt of being a flight attendant or an air hostess.

I loved what I heard about them and the little I had seen from the few times I had the pleasure of travelling by air with my father.

Back in the days there were domestic flights run by Ghana Airways and the military as well. We enjoyed the long vacations with my father who lived and worked in the Northern region.

That is what it was – a childhood dream.
Whilst growing up, I never considered flying as a career option at all. Flying is not an easy thing and my mild phobia for flying did not allow me to nurture the waning dream I nurtured as a child. Perhaps this disappointed childhood dream of mine could be fulfilled for me by proxy as my son is nursing a strong ambition of becoming a pilot in future.

I liked the flight attendants because they were pretty and they spoke English very well. I always wondered why they were trained to speak like westerners. I always didn't understand why all the flight attendants had to be pretty – what was the connection between flying and beauty, I would ask. I thought I was pretty enough to qualify to be a flight attendant but along the line, I couldn't consider it any longer because of my fear of flying.

My fear for flying is quite serious. Anytime I am travelling by air – whether local or international – I have to go through about four prayers. First, I will start praying ahead of the journey and my husband and I will pray in the morning of the trip. After that my mother who I call my special prayer guru will also pray for me before I set off. And if you know how my Mummy prays, she must always pray with her hair covered in a white scarf.

The fourth prayer will be offered when I board the flight and the plane is accelerating prior to take off. Now the fifth one is often said with a sign of the cross for the safe arrival.

You can say that my strategy for dealing with my phobia is better than those who drink heavily before they fly. At least, that is what a good friend's brother does and I believe many other people also do so.

My fear is nothing compared to the phobia of the famous Arsenal legend, Dennis Bergkamp, who had a phobia for flying. This means that anytime the team was travelling for a game he had to travel using other options and he also had to miss some international matches.

I always wonder how the life of a flight attendant is. I cannot imagine having an office in the air. I don't fancy that at all. But I guess the flight attendants enjoy their work because they always smile when you get on board and smile back when you are disembarking.

Everyone thinks the life of a flight attendant is glamorous because they are always travelling and looking nice and pretty. All we see of them is their nice uniforms and their bags which they wheel so confidently in the airports. They get to meet many people, visit countries and places and hopefully they get paid very well to make up for the separation from their family and friends.

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Overtime, the life of flight attendants and pilots is not so glamorous, their jobs are becoming increasingly dangerous because of the recent occurrences and disasters in the industry.

The missing Malaysian plane of the ocean, the other Malaysian airline which was alleged to have been shot down in Ukraine airspace, the crash of a Russian airline within the airspace of Egypt and the Egypt air disaster that occurred a few days ago makes flying not too pleasant. These are very sad incidents and this makes the work of flight attendants and pilots more dangerous than ever.

Generally pilots and aircraft engineers are said to be in the top 3 most dangerous jobs but they must still do their work because that is their chosen career. Regardless of what we think about flying, we are told it is also the safest means of transport available. Accidents are very rare and we pray they stay that way. However, incidents of suspected terrorist involvement in recent air disasters leave one wondering how safe it is to fly these days.

The reality is that the air travel industry has suffered a lot since the September 11 terrorists' attacks and the travel sector and airlines are doing a lot to make flying more attractive to many people. Since the industry has been squeezed for profit, attendants now have to fly more to be able to earn more money.

Even without the dangers involved in flying, the work of cabin crew is not as glamourous as we see them. They have to put up with a lot of trash – the insults and cheekiness of difficult and irate passengers who may disregard safety regulations – and trash that are created in the planes.

They work during unusual hours, mostly night time, and no lateness whatsoever is tolerated. This means they must make a lot of personal sacrifices.

They often have to be away from their family and friends but it is compensated by the days they are off work. The good thing is that when they walk out of a plane, they don't have to carry any work with them. They just go and enjoy their lives till the next assignment is up. That is not bad at all.

From the days of Heinrich Kubis, who is said to be the world's first flight attendant, in 1912, the work of flight attendants have changed just as the criteria for selection.

As I watch the family of a pretty flight attendant and other family members of the victims of the Egyptian Airline mourn their loved ones, I said to myself, if I were a flight attendant I will be very worried about recent trends but I will still not have any option than to follow my passion. Everyone faces challenges in their work and you don't quit when they come up, you only push yourself harder to achieve the goals you have set.

The mere thought of the linkage of terrorism to recent plane crashes sends some shivers down my spine.

It is dangerous because you do not know who on that flight managed to breach security protocol with the intent of causing harm to innocent people. I dedicate this piece to the memory of all flight attendants and victims of recent air disasters. May their souls rest in peace.