Smile and courage — flight attendants who performed a feat in the name of people's lives
Very often, the work of flight attendants is too romanticized: distant countries, meeting people, good mood, perfect uniform. But not everyone will think that this profession is also dangerous. And it's not that you have to fly above the clouds. Most often, the danger comes from passengers.
About heroic flight attendants who managed not to get lost in a difficult situation and fulfill their duty to the end, even at the cost of their own lives, — further in the review.
23-year-old flight attendant from India's Nirya (Nirja) Bganot sacrificed her life to save 360 passengers. It happened in the Pakistani city of Karachi. The PAN AM 73 plane was hijacked by radical Islamists. The stewardess did not lose her head and managed to immediately warn the pilots. They evacuated through an emergency hatch so that the plane could not be lifted into the air.
Nirya herself remained in the cabin of the plane. The terrorists demanded to bring the passports of all passengers in order to execute the Americans. The brave stewardess hid the documents of people who had US citizenship in the garbage chute and under the seats. Thanks to this, they remained alive.
When the Pakistani police launched an assault, and the terrorists started shooting back, Nirya managed to evacuate the passengers from the plane on her own. She already wanted to get out herself, but at the last moment she saw three more children in the cabin, hiding under the seats. While the stewardess was taking the children out, the Islamists noticed them and started shooting. The girl covered the kids with herself and received fatal injuries. With the last of her strength, she took the children out of the plane, and then died.
On October 15, 1970, 19-year-old flight attendant Nadezhda Kurchenko paid with her life, trying to prevent terrorists from hijacking the plane. The AN-24 plane carrying Nadezhda was on a flight from Batumi to Sukhumi. The entire flight was supposed to take only half an hour. At the 5th minute after takeoff, one of the passengers called the stewardess to him, put an envelope in her hand and demanded to take it to the commander. Either Nadia looked at him with hostility, or the man did not have enough self-control, but after a couple of seconds he rushed after her. The girl realized that something was wrong, and immediately slammed the door of the pilots' cabin, blocking the way.
The terrorist did not expect such a rebuff and tried to push the young conductor away, but she began to resist desperately. At the same time, the commander realized that there was a fight going on outside the door, and began to turn the plane sharply to the left, right, up, hoping to knock the criminal off his feet (passengers were still wearing seat belts at that time). The terrorist resisted and shot Nadezhda in the thigh, but the fragile girl continued to resist. Then he fired at point-blank range.
When the shots rang out, two more terrorists jumped up from their seats. They, without ceremony, walked over the body of the murdered flight attendant and entered the cabin, demanding to go to Turkey and threatening to blow up the plane. Most of the crew was injured. The commander managed to land the plane at the Trabzon airfield in Turkey, having managed to transmit an SOS signal. The terrorists had to surrender.
For courage and heroism, Nadezhda Kurchenko was posthumously awarded the Military Order of the Red Banner. Read more: 45 years since the feat of Soviet stewardess Nadezhda Kurchenko.
Victoria Silberstein, like many girls, dreamed of working as a flight attendant. She was attracted to distant countries, beautiful uniforms. Her wish came true. At the time of the disaster, the girl had been working as a flight attendant for two years. On that day, Victoria was on a plane en route to Irkutsk. Before boarding, everything happened as usual, the standard phrases sounded: "Dear passengers, please fasten your seat belts and take an upright position."
When taxiing began (maneuvering an airliner moving around the airfield due to the thrust of the engine), Victoria noticed that the plane did not stop for a long time. Suddenly she felt a jolt, the lights went out in the cabin and smoke appeared. At that moment, the stewardess had only one thought: we need to save the passengers. Victoria immediately remembered the words of the instructor: "Girls, in case of an accident, the main thing is to make a hole in the plane." The stewardess pulled the emergency exit lever and opened the hatch. People got out, rolling down the tilted wing, Victoria let them pass ahead, choking on the acrid smoke. Then she finally came out on her own.
The stewardess was in a state of shock. Only then did Victoria's hospital say that she had a concussion, the plane exploded and only thanks to the flight attendant, most of the passengers managed to escape.
That flight started as usual: passengers were seated in their seats, and the flight attendants performed their duties. But one couple again and again attracted Sheila's attention. It seemed that the man was flying with his daughter, only he looked very decent, and the girl's clothes looked like rags. Yes, and that frightened look.
Sheila offered the girl to take her to the toilet. There she left a note asking if the passenger needed help. She answered in the affirmative. When the plane was landing, the police were already waiting at the ramp. It turned out that the girl was really being taken against her will to be sent into sexual slavery.
Flight attendants can come to the rescue even when they are on the ground and not in the air. Israeli flight attendants Nitsan Rabinovich and Mor Levi saved an 80-year-old man from death. On that day, the girls were at the Beijing airport. They were on their way to their plane when suddenly Nitsan noticed that she had lost her phone. She asked her friend to go back to the subway station and look for him.
When the flight attendants returned to the station, they saw a woman screaming over an unconscious man. Nitsan and Mor tried to feel for a pulse, but there was none. Immediately, the flight attendants began to perform artificial respiration to the person lying down, as they were taught in first aid courses. More ordered people to run to the airport and bring a defibrillator, and she called an ambulance. The girls made it in time. They started the Chinese man's heart, and by the arrival of the doctors, the man even opened his eyes a little.
It took the flight attendants 30 minutes to rescue the Chinese. They ran to their flight, had time and smiled as if nothing had happened and seated passengers in their seats. Only after takeoff, the girls allowed themselves to cry. By the way, the phone was also found.