Flight Attendant News

From an article in the Seattle Times we learn that a United Airlines B757 hit a jet bridge at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The plane had just arrived from Chicago.

A flight attendant and at least one passenger were injured. The flight attendant, who was not identified, was treated at St. Francis Hospital in Federal Way and released.

United spokesman Jeff Green said the plane arrived at the gate, N-6. It came to a stop and parked and the engines were being shut down. The seatbelt light was turned off and passengers began moving out of their seats when the airplane moved forward another 10 feet and hit part of the jetway. It struck the engine cowling outside the engine, said Green, and caused minor damage to the engine.

The aircraft was taken out of service and was being examined by maintenance crews.

The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article about the Sudoku puzzle craze. Other media then picked up the story. According to the version on ContraCostaTimes.com :

The Sudoku craze is getting a little out of hand.

British Airways recently issued a memo to its 13,000 cabin crew members reminding them that working on games like the popular Japanese number puzzle during takeoff and landing is prohibited for safety reasons. BA said the move was prompted by passenger concerns that crew members were doing puzzles.

Judging from stories that we have been told, this may not be far from the truth. Flight attendants we know tell of combing the aircraft after passengers have deplaned, looking for Sudoku puzzles that may have been left behind. These same flight attendants used to do similar searches for crossword puzzles, but apparently Sudoku puzzles are even more addicting!

Virginia Buckingham, in a guest column for the Metro West Daily News, indicates that she is in favor of the LeaveAllBladesBehind.com campaign that I wrote about on the Aircrew Buzz blog just before Christmas, and on this blog on Feb. 1, 2006 (just scroll down for a look!).

Ms. Buckingham's February 8 column, Common sense stalls on flight safety, also tells us about Anne MacFarlane, the mother of a 9/11 victim. Her daughter Marianne, a United Airlines gate agent, was on United Flight 175 on Sept. 11, 2001.

Ms. MacFarlane contacted Ms. Buckingham to say she was interested in doing something about the revised TSA rules that now allow things like scissors and screwdrivers and other things with blades up to four inches long to be taken aboard passenger aircraft. As Ms. Buckingham's column tells us:

When I called Anne back, armed with some suggestions of how she could help the flight attendants'’ cause, she was already, as usual, three steps ahead of me. "I called Congressman Markey's office," she said. Ed Markey has been a needed thorn in Homeland Security'’s side, particularly on the lack of air cargo screening. He'’s the co-sponsor of a "leave all blades behind" bill to reverse the loosening of the banned items list.

So, if he wasn'’t just grandstanding, you'’d think he'd welcome the offer of help from another 9/11 family. For now, I'’ll chalk it up to poor staff work that Anne was given the brush off and told, basically, that the "pilots and the flight attendants'’ unions are well-organized, thank you anyway."

Had the staffer listened, he would have figured out Anne MacFarlane knows what she's talking about. She'’s worked around airports her entire career, starting as a stewardess in 1957 for Northeast Airlines, white gloves, blue hat and all. She managed security for a Logan airline and at the time her daughter was murdered, she worked as a Logan public service representative, directing passengers to gates, ground transit and baggage claim. Anne would have no trouble telling passengers: "If you need scissors, pick them up at the drug store when you land. They have no business being on a plane."

We're glad to know that people like Anne MacFarlane -- and Virginia Buckingham -- are speaking out on this issue. You can, too. Go to www.LeaveAllBladesBehind.com and sign the AFA-sponsored online petition.

Note: Virginia Buckingham is the former head of the Massachusetts Port Authority. You can read her account of September 11, 2001 on the Boston.com website.

From a press release issued earlier today, we learn that flight attendants at the United Airlines (UAL) Paris domicile are preparing to strike. The press release was posted on UAL's flight attendants union website. United's F/As are represented by the Association of Flight Attendants - CWA.

UAL has 258 F/As based in Paris. The airline has announced it will close the Paris domicile on May 1, 2006. The union claims that UAL is "attempting to close the domicile in a way that purposely denies workers access to French social benefits such as unemployment, which is provided by the government."

According to the press release, members of the union's Paris Local Council unanimously adopted a resolution "to direct their leaders to prepare for a strike."

"Since the closure announcement, United Airlines has failed to not only provide access to French benefits afforded other workers, this management has not even responded to our basic questions about the closure and forced transfer to work in other countries," said AFA Local President Sharon Benjamin-Caldwell. "Flight Attendants are expected to make life-changing decisions in a vacuum. United Airlines has not even given us the most basic information about employment and transfer terms. Paris Flight Attendants are furious about this treatment from the company to which they have offered dedicated service for well over a decade."

"Our Paris based Members have every right to expect immediate action to address their concerns as a result of management's decision to close the Paris domicile," stated Greg Davidowitch, president of AFA at United Airlines. "While management drags its heels, Flight Attendants must make decisions that include uprooting children from their schools and moving families to another country. Making prudent business decisions must include consideration of the effect on employees."

The former president of the United Airlines flight attendants union in Chicago has been charged with embezzling $10,000 from the Local Executive Council's bank account. The money has since been recovered.

According to a story on the Chicago's ABC-7 TV channel, the woman, Dianna Rushing, could be sentenced to five years in jail and a fine if she is convicted of the embezzlement.

An article on the website AirportBusiness.com reported that flight attendants recently staged a protest at ATL. The action was in response to the relaxation of U.S. security restrictions, which now allow items such as screwdrivers and scissors with blades up to four inches long to be brought aboard passenger aircraft.

In actions expected to be mirrored in air hubs across the United States, about a dozen flight attendants in Atlanta wore placards and pins with an image of scissors and a screwdriver with a red slash mark through them, and they gathered signatures for a petition asking Congress to reinstate the bans.

TSA says it plans to focus attention on explosives, instead of small items that could be weapons. Currently, TSA considers explosives to be the top threat to aviation.

While pilots on US-based aircraft now enjoy relative security behind reinforced cockpit doors, flight attendants remain vulnerable to attack by passengers armed with sharp objects.

The Association of Flight Attendants (CWA), the largest flight attendant union in the United States, is sponsoring a petition action, hoping to reverse the new TSA rules. If you are interested in this issue, you can sign the online petition at LeaveAllBladesBehind.com. Make your voice heard.