Back in march I was stuck in Newark airport waiting for our flight to leave. The plane was late for some reason that the gate agent – yelling over the distorted speaker system – was struggling to explain. From what it looked like the plane was short of one crew member. One hour after the plane was meant to leave at 11.30pm, a person pushing a wheel chair with an old man in it ran towards the gate at full speed. This old person then stumbled out of the wheelchair and straight down the jetway. He was apparently the last minute replacement flight attendant as moments after the boarded, the plane the normal boarding process began.
On arrival at the plane we found this new flight attendant sat in the front galley looking perplexed with what was going on and what he was doing there. On the plane pushing back and beginning to move he decided it would be a great idea to get up on his unsteady feet nearly falling over in the process. He then started stabbing his fingers at the buttons on the control panel making all the lights flicker on and off with pings and chimes going throughout the whole cabin. At first I wondered why are the crew were not doing anything about this old doddery guy in the galley, but then I remembered he was the flight attendant we had on board.
Once we were in the air he proceeded to make his way from the very back of the plane using a trolley as a support for his walking. After he got to the eventually front of the plane, he parked the cart in the entrance to the galley stopping everyone seated in the aisle from using the toilet. About 30 minutes later he reappeared on the far aisle with another trolley leaving it in a similar position blocking access to the galley.
By this point, as it was a very late flight and it had been further delayed, most people were fast asleep. However their rest was rudely broken by him using his giant fingers to prod each and every passenger and to ask – by screaming in there ears – whether they wanted dinner. Most people simply declined but others pretended to still be sleeping. For the few people who did chose to eat the meal it was freezing cold, probably due to the fact it had been sat in the trolley for over half an hour. He also managed to smash quite a few plates when clearing up; I think he did not realise they were meant to be reusable, but given they were pottery it should have been very obvious.
Then this whole process basically repeated itself during the breakfast service. On leaving the plane he was there slumped in the corner of the plane with a can of Coke. The whole reason why we had to wait to leave in Newark was due to needing to meet the crew numbers for safety reasons. But for the life of me I can’t see how he could help in an evacuation or improve safety in any way. He was more of a liability than anything else.