I’m a flight attendant – we have favourites on board who we’d save first in an emergency

BEFORE every single flight, us flight attendants will perform the same tasks for the benefit of you, the passenger.

We check the cabin for stray luggage, to make sure there’s nothing for you to trip over in case we have to evacuate.

We make sure you all have your seats and tray tables upright, so you can get out easier if you need to, and we’ll check you have your window blinds up, to spot if something happens outside.

But what most passengers don’t realise is that this is a two-way thing and in this latest issue of my weekly blog for Sun Online Travel, I’ll explain why you need to start paying more attention to our safety messages.

Ultimately for me, the pre-flight safety demonstration is just a part of our job and sometimes we just have to go through the motions, but I can always tell who isn’t listening.

I can imagine it being like a singer on stage and no one’s listening to me. But we have to do it, it’s a safety aspect and it’s for your benefit.

Of course, it’s nothing personal, it just means we might have our favourites when it comes to potentially saving lives on board.

People that are paying attention will know what to do and we might favour them as opposed to the guys who aren’t paying attention.

Of course, we’ll help everyone if we can, but it’s just one of those things.

You can just imagine should anything go wrong, it’s going to be that person that wasn’t listening that’s going to be begging for help and asking what they should be doing.

You should have have listened to us tell you exactly that when you had the chance – maybe you’d know.

If you must insist on ignoring us, at the very least do us the courtesy of knowing where your exits are.

That’s the main thing for us because if you know where you need to go in an emergency, it saves us having to go the wrong way to help people who haven’t listened.

We have so many people on board, it’s going to be manic if there’s a problem, so the more people there are who know what to do in that situation, the better it is for all of us, not just the flight attendants.

You should also know how important it is to leave your bags behind.

Obviously when you’re flying it’s important to have all your documents and things with you, but this is a matter of life and death.

All of those things can be replaced, whereas you can’t be, so bear that in mind when you’re getting on your flight.

Meanwhile, flight attendants check the aisles in the plane for a very simple reason.

And there is a button that cabin crew members hate when passengers press.

Alamy

Flight attendants can tell when you’re not paying attention to the safety demonstration (stock)[/caption]