By Diana Fairechild First Published in 2003 in Strategies for the Wise Passenger

RELATED PAGES

Passenger Bill of Rights
Airline meals
Gourmet food
Airborne germs
Pilots control the air
Toxins
Skypoxia
Jetlag
Deep vein thrombosis
Water pollution 

GLORY DAYS OF PAN AM

One night, flying somewhere over Asia, a first-class passenger told me that wherever wars broke out, it was always more important for him to know the local Pan Am station manager than to know his country's ambassador —beause it was the station manager who could get him on a plane even from a war zone.

Here's another example. One day on the crew bus leaving Hong Kong, the first officer told us that the night before he had missed the last ferry from Hong Kong to Kowloon (where our hotel was), so he had to hire a private boat. The boatman evidently assumed that our out-of-uniform pilot was a foreigner with the usual appetites and asked him, "You want nice girl?"

"No, thank you," the pilot said. A few minutes later, the boatman asked the same question. This time, our pilot, wanting to stop this conversation, replied, "I only like American girls."

"Ay-ya," said the boatman. "The only bakgui [white ghost] lady in Hong Kong is Pan Am stew."

In 1966, Pan Am bragged that among its 4,000 stews, 38 languages were spoken. We stews had a glamorous life and picked our flights each month from among 94 cities on 6 continents.

Also in 1966, Pan Am surprised the world when it announced its plans to be the first airline to buy jets that could carry over 400 passengers.

Of course, this was the Boeing 747. Pan Am eventually purchased 40 Boeing 747s—and I eventually flew just about all of them as chief purser to every corner of the globe.

GOING WITH THE FLOW

Pan Am went bankrupt in the 80s, but you can still get a flavor of the times by watching the 2002 film, "Catch Me If You Can." It shows a bevy of Pan Am stews in the 60s turning all heads and hearts at Miami Airport.

Flying was certainly fun, but while flitting around the world, my own health problems took me in an unexpected direction. I had to focus on my health, or I couldn't handle all the night flying and time zone changes. The jetlag was horrific, and I had to stay on my toes or I became ill.

While serving my passengers, I observed that flying affected their health as well, and I became concerned for them—especially the elderly, the occasional child, and frequent flyers, who like us never seemed to catch up on their jetlag.

On board, while offering hot towels, drinks, food, and landing forms, healthy flying ideas began to flow into my mind—and I wrote them down on Pan Am cocktail napkins and food order forms.

At home I typed and retyped my notes. As soon as personal computers came out, I got one. I wrote in all my spare time—there was a momentum inside me. The writing energized me and had a life of its own. My first book, Jet Smart, was a direct result of my own health problems caused by flying and was eventually published 14 years after I started working on it.

NEAR-FATAL BLOOD CLOT

My second year with Pan Am I nearly died from a blood clot that started with an injury on the plane. While boarding, the aluminum door at the top of the runway stairs to the plane blew shut and hit my leg. My hands were full with heavy bags, so I couldn't stop the door from slamming on my leg.

In those days, chief pursers carried all the first class silver serving utensils, including the roast beef carving knife. Imagine tweezers being taken away from flight attendants today, when I used to fly with a 9-inch serrated knife in my bag.

After takeoff, I was busy—and it wasn't until 12 hours later when we arrived in Tokyo that I noticed my leg was swollen. I didn't see a doctor and worked my next flight home, and a few days later I woke up with a sharp pain in my lung. It was almost impossible to take a breath. In the hospital, I was told that I had nearly died when a blood clot that had formed in my injured leg (deep vein thrombosis) passed through my heart. And that this clot was now in my lung (pulmonary embolism).

After 6 months, I went back to flying and all seemed well. Only 30 years later did I understand that the blood clot was flight-related. There are certain conditions on the plane which make it easier for blood clots to form. These aircraft environmental factors start with the onboard low air pressure and low humidity.

On top of this, my "required" uniform girdle contributed to the propensity of my blood to clot after the injury to my leg. The girdle cut off circulation at high altitude when the body automatically swells up. This is why I always recommend that passengers wear loose clothing.

Then there were the birth control pills that changed my body chemistry, so I was in an "at-risk" category.

Looking back, I see that no matter how painful, this blood clot was a blessing in disguise. Life became more precious after this incident, and I felt compelled to do something useful with mine.

After nearly dying in my early 20s, I focused on helping others. My venue was air travel and passenger advocacy, which became my life's work.

FRESH AIR

As a result of the pulmonary embolism, I became very sensitive to toxins in the air. I remember one flight after deregulation when my left lung was hurting and I discovered that the pilot had deliberately reduced the fresh air in the cabin (for the passengers and flight attendants).

Subsequently, I learned that pilots routinely reduced the fresh air for passengers—but not for themselves—in order to save fuel.

As time went by, I noticed that when the fresh air was reduced, I had trouble thinking. For example, as chief purser, I had to tally the accounts (from liquor, headsets, and duty-free purchases) at the end of every flight.

When there was plenty of fresh air, I had no problem doing the accounts, which included currency conversions.

But when the air was recirculated, I found I always had trouble with the accounting, as well as difficulty breathing, and pain in my lung.

DEREGULATION NEARLY KILLS ME

During my first 12 years of flying, I felt safe on planes in spite of the blood clot incident. At work, I felt energized and tremendously enjoyed my passengers.

The passenger-to-stewardess ratio in those days, by the way, was about double what it is today.

By far, the worst change that came about after deregulation was the recirculated air—we now got less than 50 percent fresh air. On top of that, passengers were jammed in closer together, so more people were competing for the meager fresh air that trickled in through the air vents.

Deregulation achieved its goals of increased competition and lower airfares—the number of airlines doubled, the number of passengers doubled, and airfares went down. But now, looking back from where the airlines are today, deregulation came at a terrible price in unacknowledged health consequences for passengers and crew. For my part, the working conditions became so poor that this resulted in the complete collapse of my health.

PESTICIDES IN PLANES

Today, many areas of airline travel concern me. The most disturbing is the use of pesticides in occupied cabins.

On certain international routes, poison is actually sprayed right on passengers. During the years that I flew, I was in airplanes when they were sprayed with pesticide hundreds of times.

The poison got in my lungs, on my skin, and in my eyes. Over the years, my body became more vulnerable to these poisons.

MEDICAL GROUNDING

The weakness that descended on me was insidious—I kept thinking I would get over it, but it only got worse.

During my last year of flying, 1987, I fell ill on every flight and had to use my days off to recover with the aid of medicine and bed rest. I spent all my time off in bed trying to recuperate for my next flight.

Finally, I was "medically grounded" with flu-like symptoms that persisted for years. As it turned out, I spent the next decade and a half struggling with my health.

On top of this, not being able to fly was a great personal loss. Flying had been much more than a job—for 21 years I had an enchanting lifestyle traveling around the globe.

I was diagnosed with "chemical poisoning" by George Ewing, M.D., Chief of Allergy at Straub Hospital in Honolulu.

Three other specialists in environmental medicine subsequently confirmed this diagnosis. They all said the cause of the poisoning was toxins in the planes where I worked.

It was a shock to find out that my health problems were caused by conditions on the plane.

I had become so acutely sensitive to toxins that I couldn't function in any so-called "normal" environment— around anyone wearing chemicals, even fabric softener in their clothes or deodorant, and certainly not perfume or lotion. My eyes were acutely sensitive to light, and I was very weak.

YEARS OF HEALING AND REFLECTION

The pain of those years is still so biting it is easier to speak of them metaphorically. . . I'm on a trapeze. I've been flying along, doing stunts on the bar. Suddenly, I can't see the catcher. I have to let go of the bar because I can't hold on any more. There is no catcher! I fall.

And then a whole new world opens up to me. I discover a safety net that turns out to be okay, and then, ultimately, a pretty interesting place.

But the safety net is not a permanent place, and I have to let go again, and again—surrendering to the present challenges and living on faith.


BIRTHING JET SMART

For many years, I hardly left home. I wrote about air travel and eventually published Jet Smart in 1992 at a time when I was still too ill to go on a book tour.

After an initial write up in a Hawaiian newspaper, Rotary Clubs around the state began to invite me to speak. Hawaii is a tourist destination, and many Rotarians at these meetings are tourists.

I thank all these Rotarians—they used to line up after my talks to buy autographed copies of Jet Smart. Then they took my books all over the world and talked about my work.

Barely 13 months after Jet Smart came out, a USA Today feature called it "An underground hit," and Xerox, Johnson & Johnson, and General Motors had purchased Jet Smart in bulk—GM bought them for a convention in Detroit.

JET SMART READERS BRING CHANGE

I was quoted by many newspapers and magazines (New York Times, Forbes, Business Week, International Herald Tribune, London Times, Taipei Times, Tokyo Today, Veja Brazil), and interviewed on syndicated radio shows such as Art Bell—all from home.

Dateline, ABC News, and Hard Copy flew to Hawaii to interview me. CNN TV had me on air answering questions for an hour.

There were hundreds of interviews in a couple of years because Jet Smart broke dozens of stories about airline health and safety practices and policies. Here are a few well-known examples:

Jet Smart broke the story about contaminated drinking water on planes and the lack of potable drinking water for passengers. My allegations were proven 7 years later by a Japanese study, and then again in 2002 by a Wall Street Journal report.

• Jet Smart first broke the story about the dangerously high levels of toxins on board. A toxin is a substance that can cause death, mutations, reproductive malfunctions, diseases, and behavioral problems in people, in animals, and in their offspring. Subsequently, there have been lawsuits against airlines based on chemical toxicity.

• Jet Smart broke the story that pilots get to breathe better air and that they deliberately reduce the oxygen in the passenger cabins to save money for the airlines.

Whenever I was in the cockpit, I could tell that the air was fresher and richer. And once I learned where the fresh air toggle switches were located on the cockpit instrument panel, I used to verify my perceptions with the switches—though I could always tell anyway because of the pain in my lung. But pilots vigorously denied that they had better quality air.

Even years later, after both USA Today and Smart Money quoted me about cockpit vs. cabin air, a few pilots wrote to these publications, pecking at my credibility.

The airlines finally admitted the truth in a press release about smoke-free flights, saying passengers were guaranteed smoke-free air even if a pilot smoked because the cockpit had separate air.

• Jet Smart first broke the story about the horrific practice of spraying pesticides on airline passengers while trying to kill agricultural insects. A worldwide investigation followed, and at least 20 countries stopped spraying pesticides in occupied aircraft cabins.

But dozens of countries still require the airlines to spray while passengers are on board. Ongoing advocacy is urgently needed.

You may wonder why I toot my own horn about being the first to bring these and other safety issues to the public.

First, I feel that it is important to occasionally attend to my professional record in order to maintain the highest degree of effectiveness and credibility in advancing my cause.

And I'd also like you to know, dear readers, that there is at least one recognized expert who will continue to speak the truth, regardless of pressures from the airline industry.