For everyone onboard a flight, it’s not just about travelling to their destination but also to reach there safely.
Reflecting on the recent Japan Airlines collision, Taiwanese artiste Lin Pei Yao took to Instagram yesterday (Jan 3) to voice her views as a former China Airlines flight attendant and urged people to not make things difficult for service staff onboard and on the ground.
The 41-year-old, who participated in the second season of Taiwanese singing competition One Million Star in 2008 and served in the airline for 13 years, prefaced that she admired the Japanese crew’s emergency response capabilities and felt compelled to share her thoughts after seeing her ex-colleagues’ Instagram Stories about passengers not getting their desired in-flight meals.
She wrote: “Dear passengers, to those who didn’t get the in-flight meals, newspaper or magazine they want or didn’t buy the duty-free items they want, there is really no need to be angry about it!”
Pei Yao added that safety is the core of a flight attendant’s training and there are a lot of pre-flight preparations to do, such as safety announcements, safety checks after boarding and inspection of various equipment.
“Every year during re-training, most of the time is spent on training how to implement instructions quickly and accurately in the event of an emergency and calmly guide passengers to escape. Every step, action and verbal command allows no room for mistakes,” she shared.
As it is impossible to satisfy every passenger, Pei Yao hoped that they could think again before they get angry at the cabin crew.
She added: “Please think about it, to be able to land safely is already a blessing. Whatever you wish to eat, it’s all available when you land! There is really no need to fight for it on board. Isn’t it better to land safely and eat something good after that?
“I hope that people can stop making things difficult for the flight attendants. If I have the chicken rice you want, I’d really want to deliver it to you too.”
Pei Yao shared that similarly, she hoped that passengers would be nice and considerate to service staff at the customs and airport.
“Nobody hopes for a flight to be delayed, the staff also wish to end work on time,” she wrote.
On Jan 2, a Japan Airlines (JAL) plane was engulfed in flames after colliding with a Coast Guard aircraft at Tokyo’s Haneda airport. All 379 passengers and crew from the JAL plane were evacuated safely, but five of the six crew members on the Coast Guard aircraft, who were due to deliver aid to those caught in the powerful earthquake on New Year’s Day, were killed.
Japanese authorities said the passenger jet had been given permission to land, but the smaller plane had not been cleared for take-off, based on control tower transcripts.
Authorities have just begun their investigations and there remains uncertainty over the circumstances surrounding the crash, including how the two aircraft ended up on the same runway.