Leah Fearon’s never jumped out on the tarmac à la Steven Slater — the U.S. flight attendant who used an emergency slide to escape annoying passengers last week — but she has felt the frustrations that come with flying.
“Passengers can be very, very rude,” said Fearon, a Calgary-based flight attendant of 12 years. “They say the space is too small, that they’ve been flying too long, that they’ll never take my airline again.”
She’s been sworn at more than once and has had to breathe in more than her share of recycled bad gas. She’s also dealt with craziness.
Two months ago, a female passenger on Fearon’s Vancouver-to-Calgary flight yelled, “The world is going to end!” throughout the flight.
“The fourth time, she took off her seat belt and barrelled to the front of the plane. A flight attendant and a passenger had to hold her down,” said Fearon.
After a really long shift, Fearon said she becomes a “slam-clicker” — she immediately goes to her hotel, shuts the door and locks it, and then she pours herself a really hot bath.
