A flight to forget
Oh what a flight
Okuk's Last Flight
B707 Anecdotes
B707 Introduction
A Biblical Story
A Biblical Story 2
A Biblical Story 3
Forbidden Fruits
Joe's Jolly (Poem)
The Golfer
Suitably Restrained
PX Advertisment 1
PX Advertisment 2
PX Advertisment 3
PX Article 1
PX Article 2
PX Article 3
The Check Ride
First and Last Flt.
First Command
DC3 KOK - POM
The Holiday
Friends at Last
History of P2ANQ
Ferry Flight
Crayfish
FO Cassanova
Larry Blackman
Secret Revealed
Airbus A300
Cargo Capers
Doing it Differently
Side Slip
Larry Blackman
4th Floor Memo
International Arsonist
Office Works
Thru Eyes of a Hostie
Airline Anecdotes
THROUGH THE EYES OF A HOSTIE Posted by Theresa Thornton (Tovin)
I have been reading all the stories and most of them are from the male species so I thought I might send something in from the female species.
I joined the airline industry as a ground hostie with Lili Slater (Martin) first with TAA and then moved on to Ansett. We were both there for that first flight to Lae that morning. Those days were really tough, we did everything manually, as you traffic officers will remember. All manifests were done by hand, tickets by hand, etc. and in those days, when you worked in traffic, you did reservations, ticketing, checking in passengers, charged excess, meeting flights etc. we did the works.
I joined Air Niugini’s second intake as a flight attendant, and things were strange. We had TAA and Ansett airlines combining and us the Air Niugini recruits were caught in between a war of who were the best, how things were done. Fly with a TAA crew and you did things their way, fly with an Ansett crew and you did it their way. You flew with a TAA tech crew, their demands were different, and same went with Ansett. To add more confusion to all that, the air craft galleys were at opposite ends. The TAA galley was at the rear of the plane and the Ansett plane was at the front. So much to cope with in our first week of in flight training, however, I would say we passed with flying colours.
Everyone has a story to tell about their experiences and happenings during their flying days, about overnights, tech crews, late flights etc. I think most of us who had a flight with Rachel Orba as a senior very quickly learned to drink the good old Bacardi and going to bed at 3am, getting up at 4am for a 6 O’clock flight, and then, doing the cabin float after the meal service while Rachel had a ten minute power sleep, (we love you Rachel) Chemists made a fortune out of crew for Visine eye drops.
There were certain senior cabin crew and pilots who were difficult to get on with, ex TAA pilots preferred to be served by ex TAA girls and ex Ansett pilots preferred to be serviced by ex Ansett girls, and a lot of times the Air Niugini recruits were looked down on. Some pilots (some featuring in the potos gallery) were quiet rude, I remember one in particular was so rude, never returned our greetings, another always sent us back with his tea, and had to be brought up by a TAA girl, “only the ones with the wig and cap” he would say. Don’t get me wrong, there were some wonderful, wonderful pilots, some are still my friends today, the likes of Ken Wake, Roy Materne, Bob Brathwaite, Greg Jacobs, Gary Honour and many more.
One ex TAA pilot a little older than most of the others was such a wonderful man and did not care where the cabin crew came from, he was friend to all. He had an evil sense of humour. Anne Mangin and I did an over night with him to Honiara and the next morning coming back through Kieta and Rabaul, we served breakfast coming to Kieta. We had a less than half full cabin and it was an Ansett aircraft so the galley was in the front. Anyway, at the end of our breakfast service, most of the passengers were snoozing and Anne and I decided to have breakfast. I was the cook that morning so as I was heating Anne’s break fast, this particular captain decided to go to the toilet which was at the rear of the plane. Breakfast that day was sausages, baked beans and eggs on toast. Anne was just about to put a piece of sausage into her mouth when captain walked out of the toilet. All of a sudden, Anne threw her whole breakfast into the bin, and started to make the throw up noise. I looked into the cabin and there was captain walking up towards the cockpit, zip open, snake hanging out of his pants but covered with bottom of his shirt and going from side to side. Anne and I cracked up and as he got into the galley area, he shut the door and tucked snake into his pants and saying “like you have never seen one before” as he entered the cockpit.
Even when we went international, some of these attitudes continued. But, let me tell you, the cabin crew had their own ways of getting back at the rude pilots, and some of the things the cabin crew did were pretty shocking, don’t worry, you all survived. This particular rude pilot whom we later named torosel (turtle) moved up to the international and the cabin crew were so disappointed, we thought we had left him behind. One morning after a night stop in Sydney, this pilot boarded the flight much later and off course there was no room for his cabin bag, so in his usual arrogant way, took out the cabin crew bags, and threw them at the entrance of the plane. I saw what was happening and looked at him, he simply walked into the cockpit, I looked at my number two hostie, we off loaded his bag, threw it in the galley, jumped on it, put it back in the luggage storage.
Sydney overnights were horrendous, especially those grey days where we spent two nights in Sydney. The routine was, trip to the bottle shop, the three leaf gambling game started. The flagons and casks of wines and Champagne from the air craft drunk till they were all gone. The more money you lost, the more one drank. Then at 11pm we would hit the night clubs, sleep the next day, and the routine would start again.
One particular over night, there were a number of call in sickies, so half the cabin crew were senior girls and when senior girls flew together, there was trouble. In first class, there was myself, Pilu and Jane Kanji, and in economy, Lewa Labu was the boss and I am pretty sure Elizabeth Ling was also there. The routine started, but we had so much grog there, we just had to drink it all before the night out started. By 11pm we decided it was time to hit the clubs so we all went to our own rooms to get dressed. Through out the evening, the fiancé of one of the girls, had been trying to get in touch with her. He finally got through to one of us who told him she had just gone to her room to get ready for the night out. He continued to call the room but there was no answer. By now he was getting really worried, so he called the front desk and begged them to send someone to check on her. The porter went through all our rooms to see if she was with one of us, but we told him she was getting ready for the night out not knowing the fiancé had been calling all evening. Eventually the manager decided they had to open the door and check on her in case she was in some sort of problem. The porter opened the door cautiously and there she was, in her undies and bra, her head in the toilet pot barely moving!! (sorry my friend, I will buy you a coffee when you get back up here) They helped her out of the toilet pot then went and called her fiancé and told him she was dead but alive!
We all know that the typhoon seasons in Asia can be terrifying. One such flight was when our pilots were still being trained by the Qantas pilots. We were all clinging to each other landing into Hong Kong and Lewa Labu and I were in first class. The plane landed almost sideways. Just as we were getting off to board the bus for the terminal, we over heard a ground staff telling the pilots, they had to take the plane to Manila for safety. Immediately I ran towards to the bus, there was no way I was going back through that weather. Next thing, they requested the senior on the flight to go to Manila with the tech crew. I am not entirely sure, our captain may have been Ian Fisher, Qantas captain and Flt engineer was Alfie the Indian bloke. They removed everything off the plane, captain asked me to secure every thing, lock the toilet doors and to sit in the crew rest holding cushions. I really was beside myself I always carried a Rosary and still do to this day. Out it came, and the praying started, the take off on this night is one I would never want to repeat. With an empty plane, we took off towards Kowloon. The take off was short, and I thought to myself, Kowloon here we come. We went up, up, up, up and up into the heavens and I was just about shitting myself. All of a sudden, the plane came down, down, and down to level and both my hands and feet went up, the cushions flew out, the rosary flew off my hands, the cockpit door flew open and the hat rack doors all flew open and I was screaming at the top of my voice. Even before my feet came down, the pilot call button came on and I thought to myself, bloody hell, at this time, so I struggled up to the cockpit and the Qantas captain wanted his cup of tea. I got him his cuppa, and proceeded to go down the aisle and close all of the hat racks. We spent the next day in Manila with every other airline and left for Hong Kong the next afternoon, picked up the passengers and crew and headed home that night. It was an experience I will not forget.
I enjoyed my eight years with the airline, left in 1981 to experience mother hood. My flying days were certainly the best, exposed to so much through the international flights, meeting of so many people and certainly through people like Vivien Robinson, June Vandriesen, Adrien Paris, and Brenda Newton. I met actor William Holden when he came to try and buy an island in PNG, I also met actor Michael York on his flight with his wife and many interesting people through the airline. A lot of us cabin crew have a lot to thank Air Niugini for the training they gave us, certainly in our personal attitudes and gains, how to handle people and of course the world. We have made long time friends with pilots and their families, other cabin crews and people around the world through air niugini.
There are so many many more stories out there I know for sure, a lot of funny ones too, bring them on Peter Sharpe and Rose Arni and Rachel Orba and any other oldies.
You all enjoy the re union, (not sure yet if coming)
Lukim yu
I have been reading all the stories and most of them are from the male species so I thought I might send something in from the female species.
I joined the airline industry as a ground hostie with Lili Slater (Martin) first with TAA and then moved on to Ansett. We were both there for that first flight to Lae that morning. Those days were really tough, we did everything manually, as you traffic officers will remember. All manifests were done by hand, tickets by hand, etc. and in those days, when you worked in traffic, you did reservations, ticketing, checking in passengers, charged excess, meeting flights etc. we did the works.
I joined Air Niugini’s second intake as a flight attendant, and things were strange. We had TAA and Ansett airlines combining and us the Air Niugini recruits were caught in between a war of who were the best, how things were done. Fly with a TAA crew and you did things their way, fly with an Ansett crew and you did it their way. You flew with a TAA tech crew, their demands were different, and same went with Ansett. To add more confusion to all that, the air craft galleys were at opposite ends. The TAA galley was at the rear of the plane and the Ansett plane was at the front. So much to cope with in our first week of in flight training, however, I would say we passed with flying colours.
Everyone has a story to tell about their experiences and happenings during their flying days, about overnights, tech crews, late flights etc. I think most of us who had a flight with Rachel Orba as a senior very quickly learned to drink the good old Bacardi and going to bed at 3am, getting up at 4am for a 6 O’clock flight, and then, doing the cabin float after the meal service while Rachel had a ten minute power sleep, (we love you Rachel) Chemists made a fortune out of crew for Visine eye drops.
There were certain senior cabin crew and pilots who were difficult to get on with, ex TAA pilots preferred to be served by ex TAA girls and ex Ansett pilots preferred to be serviced by ex Ansett girls, and a lot of times the Air Niugini recruits were looked down on. Some pilots (some featuring in the potos gallery) were quiet rude, I remember one in particular was so rude, never returned our greetings, another always sent us back with his tea, and had to be brought up by a TAA girl, “only the ones with the wig and cap” he would say. Don’t get me wrong, there were some wonderful, wonderful pilots, some are still my friends today, the likes of Ken Wake, Roy Materne, Bob Brathwaite, Greg Jacobs, Gary Honour and many more.
One ex TAA pilot a little older than most of the others was such a wonderful man and did not care where the cabin crew came from, he was friend to all. He had an evil sense of humour. Anne Mangin and I did an over night with him to Honiara and the next morning coming back through Kieta and Rabaul, we served breakfast coming to Kieta. We had a less than half full cabin and it was an Ansett aircraft so the galley was in the front. Anyway, at the end of our breakfast service, most of the passengers were snoozing and Anne and I decided to have breakfast. I was the cook that morning so as I was heating Anne’s break fast, this particular captain decided to go to the toilet which was at the rear of the plane. Breakfast that day was sausages, baked beans and eggs on toast. Anne was just about to put a piece of sausage into her mouth when captain walked out of the toilet. All of a sudden, Anne threw her whole breakfast into the bin, and started to make the throw up noise. I looked into the cabin and there was captain walking up towards the cockpit, zip open, snake hanging out of his pants but covered with bottom of his shirt and going from side to side. Anne and I cracked up and as he got into the galley area, he shut the door and tucked snake into his pants and saying “like you have never seen one before” as he entered the cockpit.
Even when we went international, some of these attitudes continued. But, let me tell you, the cabin crew had their own ways of getting back at the rude pilots, and some of the things the cabin crew did were pretty shocking, don’t worry, you all survived. This particular rude pilot whom we later named torosel (turtle) moved up to the international and the cabin crew were so disappointed, we thought we had left him behind. One morning after a night stop in Sydney, this pilot boarded the flight much later and off course there was no room for his cabin bag, so in his usual arrogant way, took out the cabin crew bags, and threw them at the entrance of the plane. I saw what was happening and looked at him, he simply walked into the cockpit, I looked at my number two hostie, we off loaded his bag, threw it in the galley, jumped on it, put it back in the luggage storage.
Sydney overnights were horrendous, especially those grey days where we spent two nights in Sydney. The routine was, trip to the bottle shop, the three leaf gambling game started. The flagons and casks of wines and Champagne from the air craft drunk till they were all gone. The more money you lost, the more one drank. Then at 11pm we would hit the night clubs, sleep the next day, and the routine would start again.
One particular over night, there were a number of call in sickies, so half the cabin crew were senior girls and when senior girls flew together, there was trouble. In first class, there was myself, Pilu and Jane Kanji, and in economy, Lewa Labu was the boss and I am pretty sure Elizabeth Ling was also there. The routine started, but we had so much grog there, we just had to drink it all before the night out started. By 11pm we decided it was time to hit the clubs so we all went to our own rooms to get dressed. Through out the evening, the fiancé of one of the girls, had been trying to get in touch with her. He finally got through to one of us who told him she had just gone to her room to get ready for the night out. He continued to call the room but there was no answer. By now he was getting really worried, so he called the front desk and begged them to send someone to check on her. The porter went through all our rooms to see if she was with one of us, but we told him she was getting ready for the night out not knowing the fiancé had been calling all evening. Eventually the manager decided they had to open the door and check on her in case she was in some sort of problem. The porter opened the door cautiously and there she was, in her undies and bra, her head in the toilet pot barely moving!! (sorry my friend, I will buy you a coffee when you get back up here) They helped her out of the toilet pot then went and called her fiancé and told him she was dead but alive!
We all know that the typhoon seasons in Asia can be terrifying. One such flight was when our pilots were still being trained by the Qantas pilots. We were all clinging to each other landing into Hong Kong and Lewa Labu and I were in first class. The plane landed almost sideways. Just as we were getting off to board the bus for the terminal, we over heard a ground staff telling the pilots, they had to take the plane to Manila for safety. Immediately I ran towards to the bus, there was no way I was going back through that weather. Next thing, they requested the senior on the flight to go to Manila with the tech crew. I am not entirely sure, our captain may have been Ian Fisher, Qantas captain and Flt engineer was Alfie the Indian bloke. They removed everything off the plane, captain asked me to secure every thing, lock the toilet doors and to sit in the crew rest holding cushions. I really was beside myself I always carried a Rosary and still do to this day. Out it came, and the praying started, the take off on this night is one I would never want to repeat. With an empty plane, we took off towards Kowloon. The take off was short, and I thought to myself, Kowloon here we come. We went up, up, up, up and up into the heavens and I was just about shitting myself. All of a sudden, the plane came down, down, and down to level and both my hands and feet went up, the cushions flew out, the rosary flew off my hands, the cockpit door flew open and the hat rack doors all flew open and I was screaming at the top of my voice. Even before my feet came down, the pilot call button came on and I thought to myself, bloody hell, at this time, so I struggled up to the cockpit and the Qantas captain wanted his cup of tea. I got him his cuppa, and proceeded to go down the aisle and close all of the hat racks. We spent the next day in Manila with every other airline and left for Hong Kong the next afternoon, picked up the passengers and crew and headed home that night. It was an experience I will not forget.
I enjoyed my eight years with the airline, left in 1981 to experience mother hood. My flying days were certainly the best, exposed to so much through the international flights, meeting of so many people and certainly through people like Vivien Robinson, June Vandriesen, Adrien Paris, and Brenda Newton. I met actor William Holden when he came to try and buy an island in PNG, I also met actor Michael York on his flight with his wife and many interesting people through the airline. A lot of us cabin crew have a lot to thank Air Niugini for the training they gave us, certainly in our personal attitudes and gains, how to handle people and of course the world. We have made long time friends with pilots and their families, other cabin crews and people around the world through air niugini.
There are so many many more stories out there I know for sure, a lot of funny ones too, bring them on Peter Sharpe and Rose Arni and Rachel Orba and any other oldies.
You all enjoy the re union, (not sure yet if coming)
Lukim yu
