5 Safety Precautions Flight Attendants Always Take When They Fly

28.03.2024 - 14:55 / afar.com

It’s easy to forget that there’s so much more to flight attendants’ jobs than serving passengers drinks and snacks, locating free space in the overhead bins, and passing out earbuds for the seatback entertainment. After all, much of their most important duties occur behind the scenes.

As most captains will remind passengers before aircraft pushback, a flight attendant’s role is primarily about ensuring the safety of all passengers and crew before, during, and after the flight.

To do so, they have to ensure their own safety and security. For instance, we’ve all heard pilots ask the flight attendants to take their jump seats when turbulence gets rough—that’s to make sure they remain out of harm’s way. And, of course, they always remain seated and buckled in during takeoff and landing, just as passengers do. You may have also heard that flight attendants will sit on their hands while in their jump seats during takeoff and landing, but they’re not required to. The FAA only requires flight attendants to have their hands “positioned in their laps or holding onto the side of their seats.”

Here are five things flight attendants do to ensure the safety of themselves and everyone on board the plane.

You may have noticed that flight attendants always come through the cabin one final time before takeoff and landing to check that no tray tables are down and everyone is wearing their seatbelts. They do this throughout the flight as well, especially if the captain has just turned on the fasten-seatbelt sign.

But the reality is flight attendants are constantly checking the cabin, and it starts before passengers even get on the plane. Before passengers board, flight attendants check the cabin to make sure emergency items like the defibrillator and first aid kit are on board and in good working order. They also test equipment like emergency lights and the public address system. What exactly is tested and checked is up to each airline’s FAA-approved flight manual, but you can bet that flight attendants are doing their due diligence to check that everything is in good shape before the flight.

You won’t see it face-to-face while in the air, but flight attendants and pilots talk to each other. If you’ve ever seen a flight attendant conversing on what looks like a landline phone, they’re communicating with one of the pilots in the cockpit via the plane’s intercom. Cockpit doors are locked and not opened during flights, except when necessary for a pilot shift change or meals. So if the pilots and flight crew need to speak about the status of the flight, or if there is any deviation from the original plan, the intercom is how they communicate.

That’s not the only time pilots and flight attendants talk. They also meet before