A flight attendant’s job may seem glamorous and simple, but it’s actually a lot more layered and difficult than you realise.
They undergo unimaginable and vigorous training, they’re on their feet for hours on end, they’re forced to deal with some questionable characters and they have the lives of hundreds of travellers in their hands.
It’s a tough gig. So tough that sometimes they forget to do the more basic tasks, like closing the front door of the plane.
I mean, it rarely ever happens but it was the reason a recent Bali-bound flight was forced to turn back to China just 90 minutes after takeoff.
The Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737 was carrying 180 passengers from Guangzhou when flight crew noticed the plane’s front door wasn’t entirely closed.
An airline official told reporters that initial indicators in the cockpit inaccurately showed that the door was sealed, however, around 1.5 hours into the five-hour flight the system detected that the front of the aircraft was not shut properly, Strait Times Asia reported.
“The system did not detect this prior to the flight, but when the plane was up in the air, it was detected.”
Sriwijaya Air, spokesperson
The Boeing returned safely to Guangzhou and no one was injured during the incident.