Captain-crew 'catfight' begins at training stage

Chennai: A recent mid-air scuffle on board an Air India flight involving the captain and an air hostess – subsequently the woman was found guilty by the management – is just another case in the never-ending saga of routine fights and ego clashes between cockpit and cabin crew members that normally see the airhostesses losing out in the end.
Cabin crew personnel are at the mercy of captains and are hence humiliated and supressed at every stage of their career, say airhostesses. For their part, pilots accuse the women of acting too smart at times and attribute spats to cabin crewmembers failing to respect the leadership of the captain.
A cabin crew member with a decade of experience says that humiliation begins right at the training stage. “Trainers won’t clear your papers if you are not nice to them. You are flunked without any rhyme or reason,” she claims adding that for a junior cabin crew member, the flight experience could be scary in the initial days as seniors get picky during briefing and even ground them. A chipped nail, an inch longer skirt or a not-so-good smile could land them in trouble, she says.
“The most I hate is serving the captains.
Though foreign airlines are better off, even captains in Gulf Air, for instance, expect cabin crew to carry their bags,” she says.
In April this year, the 800-strong Air India’s pilot association ICPA took a decision that none of its members would fly with Monica Chalan, an airhostess based in Bangalore, accusing her of ‘indiscipline’. Similarly, last year, Amrita Ahluwalia, a senior cabin crewmember, who created a stir with complaints of harassment, was stuck in Dubai with all pilots refusing to fly with her. “Finally the operations team begged us to bring her back as her visa was expiring,” says a Chennai based Air India pilot.
“We are expected to hi-hello and please the captain.
His meals have to be served first before we serve the passengers. His flirtatious comments have to be tolerated because he can report you to the HR, which will affect our performance report…,” complains a senior cabin crew in Jet Airways in Mumbai.
12/11/09 Mamta Todi/ExpressBuzz