Another pair of Pan Am training videos have surfaced, with these focusing on flight attendant behavior, specifically chronicling the poor behavior of one particularly naughty flight attendant who bickers with her colleague in the galley and then yells at a passenger for sitting in her jumpseat while smoking a cigarette.
More Pan Am Gold: Naughty Flight Attendant Fights With Her Colleague In Galley, Chews Out Passenger For Smoking In Her Jumpseat
Pan Am shut down in 1991, closing out one of the richest chapters in worldwide aviation history. But Linda Reynolds saved a series of training VHS tapes from the Pan Am Training Academy in Miami, Florida. Only recently, they have been converted to digital and are being posted on the Pan Am Musuem Foundation YouTube page.
These videos are hilarious…like of the passenger I chronicled who demanded an upgrade to first class and refused to her extinguish her cigarette onboard, as I wrote about last week.
> Read More: “Pan Am Karen” Tries To Scam First Class Upgrade, Smoke Onboard
Over the last two days, two new videos have surfaced, this time centering on the importance of flight attendant professionalism.
The first video is of an argument in the galley. One flight attendant demands another stop rummaging through “her” galley, insisting, “This is MY galley!” A rather nasty argument ensues, such that services is delayed in the front cabin and Clipper Class passengers can even hear the two flight attendants arguing.
The purser enters the galley, breaks up the fight, assigns each flight attendant a role in completing the meal service (one is to serve bread, the other is to serve wine). After the meal service, the purser promises the issue between the two will be resolved, but passengers cannot be left waiting.
The second video features the same flight attendant who bickered in the galley finding a passenger sitting in her jumpseat and smoking. Rather than ask her politely to return to her seat, she demands she returns and berates her for smoking, something that does not sit well with the passenger. An argument ensues with the flight attendant refusing to provide her name and the passenger leaving in a huff.
Later, the purser comes back to the flight attendant, wakes her up (she is dozing), and explains that the passenger is still upset and had asked for her name. Awake now, the flight attendant defends her conduct, stating that “FARs [flight attendant regulations] prohibit her from sitting in my seat!” The purser gently corrects her, stating there is no such regulation and the passenger is not barred from sitting in a jumpseat.
The flight attendant is advised to create an incident report and also to apologize to the passenger.
(sidenote: flight attendants making up regulations is hardly a new thing)
CONCLUSION
I feel bad for the “star” of these two videos…she does not come off looking very professional. But I’m absolutely mesmerized by these Pan Am training videos, which do a great job of pointing out bad behavior (some of which we still witness today on other airlines) and offering a helpful lesson to flight attendants concerning conduct onboard.
Karens? Will watch later to see if I can catch Jerry Stiller in the background again.
“FAR” in an aviation context, is most often an abbreviation for “Federal Aviation Regulations” which itself is a shortened form of “Federal Aviation Administration Regulations”.
Excellent videos, entertaining, amusing and completely dated. They should be shown as shorts before screenings of the best movie of all time – Airplane! “I am serious and don’t call me Shirley.” (Okay, maybe second to Blazing Saddles.)
Did you see the one recently posted on first class service standards? If not, you’ll love it even more than these ones.
Thanks Ryan!
Here is a plating video from the 1950s
Not sure I’d want anyone using their hands to put ice in my drink. I guess that is the “personal touch.”
That was the whole point…the person using their hands to put ice in the glass was an example of “What not to do” when serving customers.
Love the hairdos!
If you thought the training videos from the 80s were a trip…
In Canada, pax are forbidden to sit in FAJ/S unless they are assisting the FA in a planned emergency landing, or, an Incapacitated FA requires a pax seat and the displaced pax has been advised on the where the O2 mask is, how to wear the seatbelt and how to operate the door. Its is part of our Flight Attendant Manual ( FAM) and regulated by Transport Canada.
Ah, the days when someone could push back against a power-tripping “flight attendant” making up a rule and expect an apology instead of an arrest.
I’m amazed by this video of UA meal service. This is only from 2004. Things have declined quite a bit since then.
https://youtu.be/HojaP3TzBOU
Nowadays if you cough let alone disagree with a flight attendant, you get federal jail time.
Just remember, you’re soaking in it!