I found this on another board and found it to be very thoughtfully written.
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I saw it last night and thought it was pretty well done and powerful. However, I somewhat feel that the flight attendants don’t get their due credit.
Fight fighters are big heroes since 9/11. It seems to me that they have gained increased respect and are looked up to by millions of Americans. I see people wearing “NYFD†tee shirts and even had a passenger try to get a free drink from me because he said he was a fire fighter. I didn’t believe him … thought he was trying to exploit the lasting admiration Americans have for fire fighters.
And what do flight attendants get??? We are looked at as expendable peons since 9/11. We can have our pay slashed, our pensions stolen, and are worked to death causing thousands of flight attendants to quit/retire, while others that stay, ruin their health. And that is OK … no big deal. Actually it is great for the airlines that they can get rid of us and hire new bottom-of-the-pay-scale flight attendants. I feel that our “status†as flight attendants has decreased since 9/11.
How do we know that it was the passengers that thought up and organized the takeover of FT 93 ??? From all my years of viewing RET videos, my impression is that in general, passengers look to the flight attendants in an emergency situation and follow their lead … kind of like scared little lambs. We have also been told that there is often “negative panic†where passengers are too scared to do anything and just sit still and do nothing unless the flight attendants get them moving. We have been taught from day one, to use passengers as our helpers in emergency situations. We are also experienced in “using†passengers to translate for foreign speaking passengers, and making change when we are selling liquor etc. etc….
I’m not sure if it was really “bravery†to try to overtake the terrorists on FT 93. I think it was “survivalâ€. If you know that your flight has been high jacked, that terrorists are flying the plane, that two other planes have been flown into the World Trade Center (as they did from the phone calls made from FT 93), and that you are going to die … as crew member, I would be thinking that we have to try to get control of the aircraft from the terrorists. There are more of us than them. Hopefully someone on board knows how to fly a plane. Even if no one does, it would be better to have someone that does NOT know how to fly a plane, trying to fly it with help from the ground, than have a terrorist fly you into a building. At least you have a chance of survival.
I don’t think you have to be a BIG STRONG MALE PASSENGER to figure it out and come up with a plan. I think that the female flight attendants were probably more aware of the situation sooner as they move around the a/c more than sitting passengers, have a better view of the a/c while standing, are use to looking up and down the aisle, have the interphone on the plane to use, are in a familiar environment, and are trained for in-flight emergencies including highjackings.
I read part of the “The 9/11 Commission Report†and flight attendants on 3 of the flights were the first ones to contact the authorities. Flight attendants Cee Cee Lyles and Sandy Bradshaw called from Ft 93. Cee Cee Lyles was a police officer before becoming a flight attendant and her husband was also a police officer. In the movie she was seen in the background or peeking around a corner. I doubt that as a former police officer and as a flight attendant trained for emergency situations, she just took a “background position†and did nothing. I think it is more likely that she took a “take charge positionâ€. In one scene in the movie, the MALE passengers tell the female flight attendants to get anything that can be used as a weapon from the galley as if the passengers are running the show.
Although politically incorrect … the Todd Beamer thing rubbed me the wrong way from the start. I feel badly for everyone on FT 93 … passengers and crew … and I’m sure that they all did their best in the situation, but it seemed to me that that Lisa Beamer jumped in and grabbed the “hero†medal and limelight for her husband. She was everywhere … the noble young wife of the hero of FT 93 … TV talks shows, with President Bush, wrote a book etc. Some of the other male passenger’s names became well known also. If they had survived, I’m sure that the pilots would have been the biggest heroes of all, but since they were apparently killed right away, they didn’t get that claim to fame.
On the other hand, the flight attendants that probably had to deal with the situation the most, are depicted in both the movie and TV show as just hovering around not doing much. The revolt against the highjackers was undoubtedly a group effort … and apparently voted on by all, but I think it may well have been a case of the flight attendants using the passengers to help them in an emergency situation.
While the movie “United 93†does not actually single out Todd Beamer and the guys to be the big heroes, it seems to me that the role of the flight attendants is downplayed. History is being written and I believe that the public perception is that the passengers are the heroes. We “girls†are just along for the ride.
