You Can't Dial 911 at 35,000 Feet
After the death of a woman aboard an American Airlines flight from Haiti to New York, media coverage stoked the fears all passengers have of getting ill at 35,000 feet. But it's for exactly that reason flight attendants typically spend at least a third of their training time on first aid and other emergency skills. The Federal Aviation Administration is currently investigating how well the American crew and equipment responded to that recent call for help, but meanwhile, it's worth asking what airlines tell their crews to do if you get sick.
For some answers, I dug out a flight attendant manual for another airline that I'd picked up several years ago when I was researching airlines' flight attendant training schools for an article about how the job had evolved after 9/11. One of the main points of contention in the recent American Airlines case was whether the emergency equipment onboard the plane was in working order. But on the opening page of the "first aid" chapter, under policy, was the following line: "Flight attendants should check all emergency equipment before the initial flight of the day and anytime there is an aircraft change," and such equipment "must be checked to see if it operates properly." In fact, there were supposed to be a dozen POBS, or "portable oxygen bottles," aboard the American flight, so the odds that all would be empty or malfunctioning seem remote.
