When shoe bomber Richard Reid reported to Ayman Al-Zawahiri what he'd learned about flight attendants while making test runs on El Al, Reid wrote, “generally flight attendants are security." So, there is no end to the irony that the incompetent terrorist didn't take his own observations seriously; it was a flight attendant who, five months later, prevented Reid from blowing up American Airlines Flight 63 (which would have killed 198 passengers and crew). Flight attendants are the eyes and ears in the field. They are the first responders when catastrophe strikes. Why don't they get more credit where credit is clearly due?

In "Flight Attendants Still Unsung Heroes," travel columnist Charles Leocha writes:

"Every time a plane takes off, every time a traveler stands up and walks toward the cockpit, and every time a passenger ducks behind his seat to dig through carry-on luggage, flight attendants go on high alert."

Flight attendants are wholly vigilant and yet entirely under-acknowledged at the same time. Last week, on the sixth anniversary of 9/11, Leocha reminded readers of the critical role that flight attendants played. 

"Flight attendants were the most consistent source of information on 9/11 when, at the risk of their lives, they phoned airline operations personnel to let them know about the hijackings; they even provided seat numbers and descriptions of the hijackers. Flight attendants were most certainly involved with the in-cabin attack on the terrorists aboard United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in the fields of Pennsylvania instead of into a building on Pennsylvania Avenue."

Leocha's piece is an excellent argument for the fact that flight attendants are long overdue for an industry-wide raise. That their salaries start at $18,000 is obscene. But in the meantime, how about giving the flight attendant on your next trip your vote of confidence, or at least a smile?

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