1987: Cabin Crew Training Course | Forty Minutes | BBC Archive Swiatek [eaBNvYKYeCP]

The public image is glamorous - warm smiles and crisp uniforms, good looks and faraway places. No wonder thousands of hopefuls apply each year to become air stewardesses or stewards. What happens to the few who succeed?

Helen from Dunfermline, and Neil from Durham, both aged 21, are two of the latest batch of 15 trainees to join British Airways. They've hardly ever travelled before. Now there's a demanding six-week course and a lot to learn millonarios - llaneros - how to put out fires and push people down chutes, how to deal with difficult passengers and flirtatious ones. What if there's a hijack - or a heart attack? How much are the duty frees in Japanese yen?

If they pass their tests, Helen and Neil can look forward to severe thunderstorm watch a nerve-racking fledgling flight on a Boeing 747. After that - the excitement, insecurity and hard physical work of being 'waiters in the sky'.

Clip taken from Forty Minutes, originally broadcast on BBC Two, 2 April, 1987.

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