Flight Attendants Quotes

“In a series of experiments, safety officials ran regular people through mock evacuations from planes. The trials weren't nearly as stressful as real evacuations, of course, but it didn't matter. People, especially women, hesitated for a surprisingly long time before jumping onto the slide. That pause slowed the evacuation for everyone. But there was a way to get people to move faster. If a flight attendant stood at the exit and screamed at people to jump, the pause all but disappeared, the researchers found. In fact, if flight attendants did not aggressively direct the evacuation, they might as well have not been there at all. A study by the Cranfield University Aviation Safety Centre found that people moved just as slowly for polite and calm flight attendants as they did when there were no flight attendants present.”
― Amanda Ripley, The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes—and Why

“Becoming a flight attendant was at once rebellion and escape”
― Chris Bohjalian, Wingspan

“Ding. The cabin lights came on...The flight attendants paced the aisles like antic tightrope walkers, with fixed smiles and mussed make-up. They were done with coddling. They snatched Naila's blankets and demanded her headset, they claimed her rubbish and chastised her tilted seat.”
― Namwali Serpell, The Old Drift

“Mei is watching her face the way she watches flight attendants during turbulence: if they keep pouring the coffee, she knows things are fine--some kinds of tumult frighten only the unaccustomed or the untrained.”
― Karen Thompson Walker, The Dreamers