Pax concern w/ FA's condition

[tomokc]

Hi everybody. I wanted to ask for a little guidance about something I observed last week.

I first noticed the FA in the boarding area, in uniform and dozing. When awake she appeared dazed, possibly suffering from either a severe headache or hangover. Not a problem - I assumed she was non-rev. But when we boarded I discovered that she was the sole cabin attendant working the flight (ERJ-145). Her pax briefing was verbal only (she omitted demonstrations of seat belts, oxygen masks, pointing out exits), and she never made a pass through the entire cabin. She never qualified exit row passengers. After takeoff she never left her jumpseat, and I observed her squeezing her eyes tightly several times and rubbing her forehead.

She simply seemed medically unfit for duty to me. I didn't want to get her in trouble by sharing my observations with anyone so I kept to myself, but I felt that someone with the airline should've been made aware of her condition.

What's a passenger to do? Notify the flight crew after landing, a gate agent, someone else?

 

[gotWXdagain]

That's what you get when you pay bottom barrel and make sick leave punitive.

 

[MQAAord]

On the ATR we didn't have to do physical demonstrations, we just did the verbal safety briefing. On Eagle's EMBs they had CD players, so we did a demo but the briefing was pre-recorded and played. Not sure if a physical demo is necessary if the CD player is inop or not installed. I'd be willing to let the no physical demo thing go...

but.. if she never walked through the cabin (i.e. doing compliance checks before takeoff and landing) that's a huge no-no. Those must be done. Briefing exit row pax is required.

How long was the flight? Was it a very short flight where there would be no beverage service? We had legs like ORD-MKE and ORD-SBN where the flying time was about 30 minutes. No beverage service, but the required compliance checks do still need to be done, even on a short flight.

Many airlines (regional and legacy alike) make it very punitive to call in sick. That does everyone a dis-service.

As far as who to inform, if you don't know the physical address of the airline's inflight services office, you can always send a letter to the mail customer contact address found on every airlines' websites.

 

[Autothrust Blue]

On the ATR we didn't have to do physical demonstrations, we just did the verbal safety briefing. On Eagle's EMBs they had CD players, so we did a demo but the briefing was pre-recorded and played. Not sure if a physical demo is necessary if the CD player is inop or not installed. I'd be willing to let the no physical demo thing go...

The demonstration of the seat belt and oxygen mask is (was) required last time I bothered to look. If you really want to finesse it, I know someone who was very recently an inflight supervisor

but.. if she never walked through the cabin (i.e. doing compliance checks before takeoff and landing) that's a huge no-no. Those must be done. Briefing exit row pax is required.

How long was the flight? Was it a very short flight where there would be no beverage service? We had legs like ORD-MKE and ORD-SBN where the flying time was about 30 minutes. No beverage service, but the required compliance checks do still need to be done, even on a short flight.

Many airlines (regional and legacy alike) make it very punitive to call in sick. That does everyone a dis-service.

THIS.

The way that flight attendants who call in sick are treated means a lot of them wind up flying sick, which is in precisely nobody's interest.

 

[///AMG]

especially when everyone getting on an airplane these days has ebola.....

I don't know anything about being a flight attendant, and from your description some of that sounds lacking, but I also know how well I operate during the 0500 brief after getting home at 9-10 the night before. Words are hard to put together into sentences, and I probably also look hungover or sick or whatever else. Just sayin, maybe not at all this scenario.

 

[MQAAord]

The demonstration of the seat belt and oxygen mask is (was) required last time I bothered to look. If you really want to finesse it, I know someone who was very recently an inflight supervisor

Physical demonstration of the seatbelt, briefing card and O2 mask was not required on the ATR 42 (we did do it on the 72, because there were two FAs), and I was an instructor.

Obviously the flight mentioned here wasn't on an ATR 42, and this was many years ago so the rules may have changed. But I can tell you with absolute certainty that it wasn't required on the ATR 42.

 

[Autothrust Blue]

Physical demonstration of the seatbelt, briefing card and O2 mask was not required on the ATR 42 (we did do it on the 72, because there were two FAs), and I was an instructor.

Ah yes. It was on the EMJ, at least when I worked there. -shrugs-

 

[MQAAord]

Yeah the CD player made that possible. It always bugged me because the voice spoke so sloooooowwwww on the CD! When it was a quick turn and we wanted to get going fast there was no talking really fast to get it over with quick like we'd do [often] on the ATR.

We got away with a lot back then... It'll be 20 years in November since I was hired at Eagle!

 

[Autothrust Blue]

Yeah the CD player made that possible. It always bugged me because the voice spoke so sloooooowwwww on the CD! When it was a quick turn and we wanted to get going fast there was no talking really fast to get it over with quick like we'd do [often] on the ATR.

We got away with a lot back then... It'll be 20 years in November since I was hired at Eagle!

It's pretty boggling for me to think that I've been doing this for less than a decade and (by some definitions, anyway) my first airline is gone.