Evacuations

Today went by fast.

We are learning how to prepare the cabin for emergency evacuations. If I was ever shy, this is the time to get over it. I must be assertive, calm, direct, concise and in control.

I am a kinda bossy person by nature, so this should be fun. I actually GET to shout at people. Actually, there are a lot of things that must be done and said before I shout.

Today we went over some of the duties a flight attendant MUST perform when faced with an emergency. That's if you have time. Time is the key word here. Another VERY important element is crew member communication. Don't panic, assess the situation and spring into action. However, keeping in mind not to act dumb. We watched a video today of what NOT to do. It was funny, but sad too because I knew that some flight attendants have actually done these things. Like evacuating an aircraft unnecessarily on the active runway simply because she didn't wait for instructions from the pilot. She put all those passengers at great risk.

We also watched two videos of actual footage with real emergencies in which an evacuation took place. This is serious stuff folks. I'm trying to stay focused as much as possible. You never know when an emergency will happen.

Even though it is getting confusing trying to keep the commands straight with which aircraft I'm on...I want to be that flight attendant who knows what to do, does it and saves your life because I took my training seriously.

We were not tested today. Tomorrow we will practice commands and review the homework in preparation for our written test. There is another test tomorrow, but at this time it escapes me.
Monday we do our big 'Prepared Cabin' oral announcement test, in which we will be required to go through the entire motions (briefing passengers, demonstrating brace positions and securing the cabin). We can't miss a single step. If we do then we've failed and will be given one chance to re-test. Of course if you fail again, you go home. However, if you study and practice, practice, practice...you do fine. Wish me luck!

These classes sure beat the nervousness out of you! I could probably recite my announcements to a whole auditorium by now without freaking out!

I can't believe I'm doing this!