Sep 10, 2010

The role of Flight Attendants received heightened prominence after the September 11 attacks when several cabin crewmembers, including Sandra Bradshaw (United Flight 93), Amy Sweeney and Betty Ong (American Flight 11), actively attempted to protect passengers from assault and provided vital information to air traffic controllers and airline ground staff on the hijackings. In the aftermath of the attacks, Flight Attendants were given heightened responsibilities for the security and safety of their planes.
Click HERE for the 9/19/01 UAL MEC eulogy.

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Discovery Channel - "The Flight That Fought Back"

www.leaveallbladesbehind.com
(NOTE: Donations to company hosting the online signatures is not mandatory.)

"..the Department of Homeland Security, the FAA and other government organizations still cannot predict where, when or how a future attack will take place."

Leave All Blades Behind Takes Step Toward Law

Flight 93

On January 30^th, 2006, Council 12 - LAX participated in the “Leave All Blades Behind” campaign that took place at over a dozen airports nationwide. That same evening, A&E aired their original film titled “Flight 93.”  It chronicled the fight our fellow flying partners and passengers encountered at the hands of terrorists wielding sharp blades similar to objects that are once again being allowed on airplanes.

Having moved almost five years past the events of 9/11, I believed that the film would not have had a profound impact on me. I was wrong. As the film traveled through the sequence of events for the flight attendants and passengers of United Flight 93, my pulse started to race and I began to experience fear and anxiety.

I watched our fellow crew members fall victim to the terrorists aboard the flight and the violence they endured. Armed with simple box cutters and using our flight attendant co-workers to achieve their intrusion into the cockpit made my blood boil. The horror they went through, I believed, would have brought fear to mind. Instead, I started to seethe at how blades like the ones used aboard those flights were allowed on commercial aircraft to begin with. I tried to understand the reasons why the TSA – the government agency created to help protect us – was now allowing screwdrivers and scissors with blades “under four inches” on our planes again.

The anger succumbed to feeling the helplessness of the people on the ground. Families received calls from our flight attendants and passengers had their last conversations with loved ones. The most important thing that very moment, were the cell phones on the plane and the phones their families had at home. I began to feel the need to grasp and hold onto something tangible too.

I felt helpless watching the entire film run its course – because I am unable to fill the hole left in the lives of the families of the crew members and passengers we lost. The simple “tool” that the hijackers used to murder our flight attendants that day, could be the simple tools that the TSA is now allowing back on our aircraft tomorrow. By participating at our curbside event at LAX with the ten other flight attendants and retirees who were there, I felt – maybe, just maybe – we’ve made a difference in affecting and protecting the lives of flight attendants in the future.

The realization that the “Leave All Blades Behind” campaign is not impalpable – that there is no better way to honor our fallen colleagues than fighting to protect all flight attendants from future harm provides me with peace and calm. We are not helpless – we are not simple bystanders that are not affected by this. We step aboard those same planes every day we go to work.

The film concluded with the following:

“With great courage and resolve, the passengers and crew of Flight 93 prevented their plane from reaching its target. This film is dedicated to the passengers and crew of Flight 93, and to their families.”

Our resolve should be ensuring that the recent action by the TSA to once again allow bladed items and sharp tools back on our planes does not go unnoticed. Our dedication should be to fight any and every safety or security rule that does not protect flight attendants. We need to have the courage to advocate for a safer and more secure work environment for all flight attendants. It is imperative we fight to prevent any flight attendant from being subjected to dangerous objects that were banned from commercial flights in the post-9/11 world.

We must remember that the flight attendants that day wore the same wings we wear today – we must honor their memory, continue to fight, and never let their loss from our ranks be in vain.

I urge everyone to forward the following web address to all your loved ones in your e-mail address book. Encourage them to sign the online petition. Tell them why it’s so important to you – why it’s so important to our community, and how we honor the lives lost that single day not so long ago.

© 2006 AFA-CWA Council 12 Los Angeles. All Rights Reserved