Many of the 'air hostesses' found the job an excellent way to find a husband. Each one had to be a certified nurse, single and not wear glasses. A girl was dismissed if she either got married or fell pregnant.

The airlines liked to employ young, pretty girls and automatic retirement came at the age of thirty two.These 'trolley dollies' were originally employed to fuel the airplane. Things have changed.

The modern flight attendant has to deal with passenger safety, evacuation procedures, calming nervous travellers, serving food and beverages, and 'air rage' (hooliganism in the sky). Flight attendants have been the subjects of extreme violence attacks while airborne. The problem has become more pronounced in recent years.

On June 11,1998, Captain Stephen Lucky, Chairman National Security Committee of the Air Line Pilots Association(ALPA) addressed the Sub-Committee on Aviation, Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, US House of Representatives and said........"Passenger interference is the singularly most pervasive security problem facing the airline industry, not only in the U.S, but around the globe"............"With two-pilot aircraft in widespread and growing use today, such as the airplane that I fly, sending a pilot into the passenger cabin to help resolve a dispute seriously diminishes the safety of the flight. This is particularly so in the event of altercation, which could result in an incapacitated pilot and a resulting one-pilot aircraft".

Captain Lucky continues......."Although ALPA is opposed to such forms of interference, what we are most concerned about are the extreme forms of violence aboard aircraft which have resulted in injuries and emotional trauma for flight attendants and pilots".

Air Rage Examples

An FBI report, of an aircraft incident on a flight from Los Angeles to Phoenix, November 1969 states that two members of the group called The Doors were responsible for concern aboard a commercial airplane. The report further states that James D.Morrison was smoking a cigar while the aircraft was still on the ground with the 'No Smoking' sign switched on. It further mentions that Frederick Baker went to the toilet, removed all the bars of soap and dumped the lot on Morrison after unsuccessfully offering them for sale to the other passengers.

The flight attendant called the captain who informed them that if they did not behave, he would return to Los Angekles and assured them that the police would be waiting on the ground. This seemed to quieten them for a while before the disturbance continued. When the aircraft landed at Phoenix, the police were waiting at the gate. The FBI report tells of how police boarded the aircraft and after searching Morrison and Baker, they were handcuffed and taken off.

Flight attendant Fiona Weir needed eighteen stitches after being repeatedly hit over the head with a bottle by a Steve Handy from Dover, Kent. This incident of 'air rage' happened on a holiday flight from London to Malaga, Spain. Ms Weir had to have an operation to remove glass embedded in her head. David Wilkies, from Glasgow, was jailed for eighteen months over an 'air rage' incident. Wilkies broke down sobbing after sentence was passed. The pilot, on the London to Florida bound flight, diverted to New York after Wilkies bit a flight attendant on the arm. Wilkies threatened to jump out of a window and destroyed a passenger seat after escaping from restraints.

A fifteen month jail sentence was handed out, by a British Court,to Elizabeth Ann Elliot after she had to be handcuffed on a flight from the US to London's Heathrow airport. Elliot head butted, punched and scratched flight attendants before being restrained. Ms Elliot pleaded guilty to endangering an aircraft and two counts of actual bodily harm.

• OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS... Special agent Stephen A. Cocco, of the FBI, swore this 5 page report before a magistrate Judge in the Eastern District of New York on 23 October, 1975. (click image to enlarge)