Item 4: Who’s Been Sleeping in My Bed: An Eyewitness Report
We are greatly interested in returning our profession to the hands of the actual professionals who practice it. To that end, we remain interested in stories like this. This is an eyewitness account of the famous “talk to the hand” flight attendant in HKG. It is even more disturbing than we first thought.
And while this item may seem to be aimed at all Continental Airlines Captains, it’s not. The vast majority of our Captains take their authority and responsibility very seriously—but some do not. We urge all of our pilots to evaluate themselves honestly and resolve to be a part of the ultimate solution to the problem of the erosion of Captain’s Authority.
Neither is this aimed at the vast majority of our flight attendants. Most of our flight attendants provide wonderful service to their customers on both sides of the cockpit door. Those who do not, and who are at the root of this problem, are the issue here.
“We arrived at the hotel in HKG and one of the IRO’s went to the hotel desk and asked if there were any suites. The desk clerk said there were and handed 4 keys to the IRO. He said these are for the Captain. The ISM came from behind and took the keys and said: ‘I hand out the room keys.’ She proceeded to give a suite to the Captain and First Officer and the other two suites were for herself and another Flight Attendant. The Captain came up to ask her about the rooms and was told that she was handing rooms out according to company policy. When he asked her where this company policy could be found she said, ‘I do not have to tell you.’, and at the same time put her hand up to his face indicating stop, and said, ‘I’m on my free time—I don’t have to deal with this.’ She then walked away. All of this from an ISM that continually interrupted us at the gate in EWR (think Safety Threat/ASAP) during the critical pre-departure planning/programming phase of flight, and all without any form of correction by the Captain. Ask yourselves: ‘Why do they truly think we work for them?’
“I would like to also add that over the last 6 months I have noticed a huge disconnect from the Flight Attendants towards the Pilots. On this particular trip, as on many others, we had traveled from EWR to just past the North Pole with only one call from the Flight Attendants and that was to bring our crew meal up—whether we wanted it or not. I had asked for a first-class salad to go along with my first class crew meal and was told none were available. Later, I called back to have a Flight Attendant come up so we could take a bathroom break; I noticed several Flight Attendants eating first-class salads in B zone galley.
“It seems more and more the Flight Attendants attitude is that the food is theirs and we can have what they don’t want if they feel like it. If you do go looking in the galley for something, I have been asked, ‘What are you doing in “my galley”?’ After 28 years of flying for 4 different airlines and walking a picket line at Eastern Airlines, I was under the impression that the airplane belonged to the Captain. Somewhere along the line some Continental Captains have become conditioned to believe their authority stops at the cockpit door. Gentlemen, I am here to tell you that is NOT the case. For far too long we have allowed our profession to be pushed down while some Captains sit back and take the point of view that they do not want to get involved or they don’t want to **** the Flight Attendants off. Let me remind you that Federal Law places the Captain in command of the entire aircraft and it is time to take the responsibility that comes with that. If you, as a Captain, don’t want to act like a Captain and take command of the entire crew and aircraft, some thought should be given to either bidding back to First Officer or retiring and allowing those of us willing to be Captains to bid the position and start taking our Command Authority back!
“I believe one way to help this situation is during the briefing. The Captain should ask the ISM, ‘Who will be responsible for checking on the Cockpit and how many times can we expect calls during the trip?’ It is stated in the FA’s Policies and Procedures Manual that this briefing will come from the Captain and is CAL SOP. This will let them know in NO uncertain terms that we require them to follow their own SOP and check on us according to the schedule briefed by the Captain. Their P & P manual is on the flight ops website. Check out what it says and get involved! We are locked in a small room without food and drink while they continually eat, drink and use the lav anytime they want.
“On our way home from HKG, and after much discussion, we decided to contact dispatch and ask for a Chief Pilot and an Inflight supervisor to meet us on arrival in EWR. We knew that with the ISM’s hand to the Captain’s face we would not be able to talk with her and resolve this conflict. A Chief Pilot met us, listened to our incident, and was very supportive and somewhat shocked that a Flight Attendant would put a hand in the face of a Captain. This is obviously a ‘THREAT’ to the safety of any flight and as concerned professionals I urge you to step up and file an ASAP and indicate it is a ‘Threat Report’.
“The Inflight supervisor showed up and we explained the incident to her. At first she was on the side of the ISM and seemed to have her mind made up—until she heard about the ‘hand in the face’. At this point she began a turn to our side. We explained that we thought she missed our point on the ‘hotel rooms issue’ and that the hotel clerk CLEARLY had 4 keys and was attempting to hand the keys to the Captain, by saying ‘these are for the Captain’. At that moment the light went on and the supervisor said, ‘Oh, she was wrong and those rooms should have gone to the pilots.’
“The Chief Pilot also made it clear to the Inflight supervisor that if a Flight Attendant ever stuck her hand in his face she would be immediately removed from the trip. She agreed and said that she would have a talk with her.
“When the Inflight Supervisor left, the Chief Pilot made it clear to us that it is TIME all of our Captains start acting like Captains and taking our profession back.
“I have flown for 4 airlines including Eastern Air Lines and I have never seen some Captains be so disconnected. We are licensed and trained professionals and the airplane belongs to us. A few years ago, before coming to Continental, I was flying as a Captain on a MD-80 for a non-scheduled carrier. One day I was flying PIE to MCO to EWR. We did a quick stop in MCO then we would go on to EWR. The aircraft was full and as I was leaving the airplane to go to Ops in MCO, I saw a flight attendant in civilian clothes sitting on one of the cabin jumpseats. I asked her what she was doing and she said she was riding the jump seat to EWR! I said, ‘You got on my jumpseat in PIE and I didn’t know about it?’ She didn’t say anything except she was going to see her boyfriend. I promptly told her she would NOT be going on MY jump seat. When she told me I couldn’t do that I simply called the VP of Flt Ops and told him I removed her and why and he said, ‘I’m behind you 100%.’
“Gentlemen, the aircraft is ours, from the cockpit to the cabin, and it includes the galley and jumpseats. If flight attendants don’t start treating us fairly and with respect, we do NOT have to allow them to ride on our jumpseats. A few jumpseat denials while trying to commute home or to work, and their treatment of us will change in a positive way. They are NOT in our chain of command. Several times I have called back and said to the Flight Attendants that I need them to sit down for upcoming turbulence and have been told, ‘The Captain is in the bunk. I don’t have to listen to you.’ Yes, this is true! And when I told the Captain, what did he do? NOTHING! Some of our Captains need to start acting like Captains; let’s take this Airline and Profession back!
“Even under the Frank Lorenzo regime a Captain’s authority was intact. Somehow, many of the current cadre of Captains has given up, feeling indifferent and only wanting to be concerned with things related to flying. A Captain is responsible for the entire flight, not just the cockpit. We need to be involved in the entire flight and not give control for everything else to the Flight Attendants. That is why we are now having problems—we have abdicated to the questionable flight attendants for so long they believe they do not have to answer to us any longer.”
Your LC 170 Officers remind you that our profession belongs to professionals—those who have trained long hours, worked terrible jobs to become more qualified and employable, and those who have risked it all while flying in defense of our freedoms. The option was open to our flight attendants, just as it was to us, to become pilots. We chose our paths—and they chose theirs. Their choice is not our imperative. Our responsibility begins far ahead of the nose of the airplane and continues long past the tail. It includes the galleys and bunks and starts before the flight pushes from the gate when, as commanded by FAR 91.3, we make ourselves familiar with everything related to the safe conduct of our flight. It doesn’t end at the hotel, either. We are the leaders of our crew and while we may be off-duty, our responsibility for the care and safety of our crew never ends. We are responsible—that’s why we place the burden voluntarily upon our shoulders—and why we, above all others at our airline, are in a class by ourselves.
Gentlemen? Ladies? Today is the first day in the battle to take our profession back. Our opponent is management and those management allows, for their own purposes, to degrade us and treat us with disrespect. Dress for war—it’s coming.