Back when I was a Flight Attendant, every time I went to work I knew two things for sure:
- My day was going to be interesting
- I was going to get some kind of gnarly bruise
My normal schedule had me on “turns” from MLB-LGA – up from Florida in the morning, then back from New York in the afternoon. This flight was roughly 2:30 hours each way, so it was a pretty easy day.
One day, we took off from Florida, clear skies the whole way. Suddenly, a freak weather pattern emerged out of nowhere on the radar ahead of us. This is *highly* unusual, as this stuff is tracked very, very well. The captain got word that LGA was on a ground hold, and we’d have to divert.
He pulled all the crew into the cockpit to discuss this, as it is a very unusual situation and pretty stressful on passengers. They would be upset, of course, because it meant we’d have to land and then take off again later, or bus them to their final destination.
What was worrying us more though was, we hadn’t yet hit the storms. How bad were they that they’d shut down a major airport? Radar was coming in, but it didn’t make the situation any clearer. He changed our altitude to try to avoid the worst of it.
The captain made the call for us to do an abbreviated food service – he didn’t want us to bring out the heavy drink cart, only our trays and baskets – but none of us wanted to have the full scale revolt of cancelling it altogether. He turned on the fasten seat belt sign, made an announcement explaining the situation, and set us to our task.
A few minutes later, I remember I was handing out Rice Krispie Treats one second, the next I smacked my head on the ceiling of the aircraft, then the next I was crumpled into a heap in the aisle. My nearest crew member put his drinks tray on the ground and ran to help me, as two nearby passengers ignored the seatbelt sign and stood up to pick me up and carry me to the back of the plane.
I was stunned, to say the least. I was also concussed 🙂
I don’t remember much of the rest of the flight, other than we landed in Atlantic City, were there for around an hour and a half before taking off again and finally getting to LGA.
They brought another flight attendant on to sub for me on the flight home as I was laid out in the back row of the plane, strapped in with three seatbelts. (A doctor had examined me somewhere along the line – I believe it was ACY, but I honestly can’t remember, and cleared me to fly home but not to work that day.)
Like I said, the day was interesting, and I got a truly gnarly bruise.
Originally Posted: https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-flight-attendant-stories
Originally Posted On: 2015-02-09