Qantas cabin crew reveal secrets of a long haul flight
Qantas cabin crew have revealed what airline passengers never see in a new documentary.
The British documentary “The Secret Life Of The Long Haul Flight” goes behind the scenes of a trip from London to Sydney, including a sneak peek of the secret sleeping compartment below the passenger deck.
Accessed by steep stairs, the area which is close to the cargo hold is so close that crew need several blankets to keep warm.
“Crew rest is the best thing on the aircraft,” crew member Sarah Kelly, who has been flying for five years, said in the doco.
“We might get three hours then we switch over.
“We do have one bunk which we call the Harry Potter bunk because it’s just under the stairs.
“I actually don’t mind it because it’s like someone is giving you a hug in there. It’s nice in there.”
Sarah’s colleague Beatrice also revealed that the crew have an odd code that helps staff remember which hot drink was which.
“We have a little trick that we call Tom Cruise,” she said.
“When we talk about Tom Cruise on the aircraft we are not talking about the famous movie star — we are talking about tea and coffee. How do you put them on the trolley — tea then coffee. Tom Cruise.”
While the flight crew agree that flying the world is their “dream job”, it’s not all glitz and glamour.
In the documentary, Beatrice is seen donning plastic gloves for the half-hourly clean of the toilet.
“I’m just about to get stuck in to every cabin crew member’s favourite job — cleaning the toilet,” she said.
“People tell you it’s a glamorous job. I think they lie.
“So we do this every half an hour, just to check that everything is well and good in the toilet and there’s paper in there because no one likes to go to the toilet without paper.”