This question comes from a four year old passenger:

Victoria: “What do you do if the flight attendant falls down?”

This is actually a very good question Victoria. We always think of passengers needing help, but what do flight attendants do if a fellow crew member is injured or ill? Flight Attendants all carry an inflight manual that has polices and procedures in place should a working flight attendant become injured or ill during a flight. Although each airline will have their own policies and procedures in place for this, I would:

• Notify the captain of the flight attendant’s injury/illness
• If possible place injured/ill flight attendant in a customer seat
• Ensure we still have minimum crew to cover all of our exits, if not find out if there are any dead heading or off duty flight attendants to cover the injured/ill flight attendant jump seat position.
• If no deadheading or off duty flight attendant is available I would then look for a willing and able passenger to brief on the operation of the exit. (when and how to use it)
• I would then relocate that passenger to the passenger seat closest to the exit. Even in a situation like this a passenger is not allowed to sit in a flight attendant jump seat.

Of course we would also have to help an injured or ill flight attendant. Check out a previous post for everything you wanted to know about onboard medical emergencies.

Thanks for your question Victoria!

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Happy Flying!