FLYING HOSTESSES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 4, 6 January 1938, Page 16

FLYING HOSTESSES.

BOON TO AIR TRAVEL

CAPABLE OLD-TIME NURSES.

CIPll) TAKES TOLL,

(By ALICE ItOGERS HAGER.)

XEW ARK jXI). December 14.

Flying nurses! Two hundred and fifty of them, riding the airlines from coast to coast, ready with a smile or a meal or a bandage, as the need arises—pretty, pert- efficient—hand-picked hostesses of the upper ether.

Probably the smartest thing 'an air transport company ever did. from a passenger standpoint, was when Boeing Air Transport,-Jater United Airline*, decided in 1930 to use stewardesses on its r pEasesIt wa.s so smart that, shortly afterwards. American Airlines and Transcontinental Western. Air were also combing the country's' hospitals for the choicest of the nursing crop. Sarses had so many things to recommend them, discipline, adaptability, fearlessness, tact in the handling of all torts of human beings.

The airlines laid down stiff rules for making their choices. Each girl had to be within definite limits of height and weight, have an unimpeachable record of achievement, be young and personable, if not downright lovely. The great Ziegfeld could have found little to cavil with in the selections made. The tired business man on his jaunts from points east to points west of vice versa began to discover that the feminine touch came right along with his 'plane ride.

Instead of a friendly, hut frequently clumsy co-pilot, secretly annoyed at having to turn himself out of the dignity of his cockpit every so often -vnd merge himself into the roles of waiter, guide and occasional head-holder, if the skies got rough, here was a clever young lady, able to handle a tray without spilling its contents down a vest fronts or tuck in a pillow at the correct angle if a fellow wanted a nap. No sentimental nonsense about them, but plenty of frank and cheerful badinage with which to while away the hours. Cap id Said* They all liked it—they still do. They liked it so well that these cosy, lighted and warmed cabins, roaring along .at between two and three miles a minute several thousand feet above the earth, became the greatest matrimonial bureaux known. It got so that the girls would vow among themselves to stick it cut for at least six months, but it was usually a matter of. weeks until you could begin to hear the vowees falling with dull thuds before the darts of the aerial cupid.

Not only that, but the few women air I travellers liked it, too. It was comforting to know there was another woman on board, especially if you were new at the business of flying and a little scared. That practised bedside manner was a soothing thing to a first flighter. Before she knew it she was landing again on solid ground, with a pleasant voice still ringing in her ears and a warm, conscious feeling of pride and superiority tingling in her brain. She told her friends—probably bragged about it until, in sheer self-defence, they, too, bought tickets to find out what all the fuas was about.

j But there was ft ill another side to ' the picture. Occasionally some story would leak out about a.person at the 1 point of death being rushed to a distant hospital by 'plane. Sometimes it was a ship chartered for the purpose. More often it waa quietly stated that a regular transport had been used. So reasons, however, except speed in an emergency, were given.

There was another reason—a very important one. A doctor whose patient must go to that? distant hospital for specialised treatment would look thoughtful and suggest, "Why don't you fly! There'll be a trained nurse on board— youll be in good hands."

Cool in Emergency.

So they wonld go. Xot often, to be sure. Most 'plane loads are completely healthy, but the airline records have plenty of instances. Here is a small boy. two years old, victim of-infantile paralysis. He must make a long crosscountry journey to a famous clinic, a journey that' will take three days by train. Instead, strapped from shoulders to ankles on a heavy board, with Wtnl weights and pulleys stretching limbs, he is brought on board a piane and laid carefully across two facing seats, while his tired mother watches anxiously beyond the narrow aisle. After a little while she begins to relax and smile.

The yonng stewardess knows exactly what to do and does it. Her uniform is. of dark cloth, her smart cap reminiscent of World War headgear, but there |is an aura of starched linen about her that works wonders. Mother and child arrive at their destination none the worse physically and mentally peaceful.

There are emergency cases, too. developed after take-off. On a recent flight from to Sib th

■| stewardess? trained ere recognised that all was not well with two of her passengers, a. man and wife. The trip was smooth and uo one wag airsick. She began to study them - and ask a few Questions, and. as they grew raoidly worse, took charge in a harry. At her suggestion the pilots radioed ahead for ] a physjclan and an ambulance to be waiting' at the airport, .and. nsing- her first aid kit, she took all possible cor rective methods herself. On landing, the physician confirmed her diagnosis of lood poisoning—arsenic from improperly treated vegetables eaten at a friend's house before leaving. Her prompt action had saved their lives. Pluck and Ability. Air sickness these young ladies take in taeir stride. It happens seldom now- | adays in the steadier, modern ships, bat | it does happen just as seasickness happens at sea. Once in a long while, on a perfectly flyable but very roogh day. ; almost an entire cabin full of passengers will be sick. This writer had one such experience where the hostess proved both her pluck and her ability. She had sis ill passengers to care for, in a cabin that was heaving right a Song with the j best of them, so that she had to move j ij with the greatest caution to avoid being j 8 thrown to the Soor. She battled with j the situation for three long, hard hours. | | never once uttering a word of com-1 plaint, and can3e down to the ground at ' the terminal, somewhat wan and j dishevelled, but still smiling with i genuine friendliness like the <*ood! trouper she was. And then, of course, there are the! babies. Not sick ones, bat nice, brand i n«?w well ones, pink asd cooing cherubs i (with exceptions), who also need expert' eare. Ever see a complicated infant I formula mixed "upstairs," with the youngster settling down contentedly to its scientific, sterilised bottle at " the proper moment? Try it soase time j it's something to talk about. | Finally, there are the tales of sheer j hes assm. where the women in these aerial 1 «"ews held up their end right alono- with jj the men. Like gentle Nellie Grainger in the Pennsylvania mountains, or the girls I n 2lO we,il " ,So Louisville to flood sufferers. Or those other <rjr!s. about whom nothing was said, %rho | stepped into the welter of agonv that | was the Hindenburg aftermath on that mad night at Lakehnrst in May They're a grand lot!—