More Confessions of a Hostie (12 page)

As I walk past her, she is begging me for just one more drink. Now I am sure she has a problem. A more inexperienced flight attendant might cave in and give her what she wants, but I have enough sense and experience to know I shouldn't. Both Damien and I make the decision not to serve her more alcohol. We are positive Kate will agree with our judgment call and support our decision. Passengers generally get very angry when you cut off their alcohol supply, particularly people who have a drinking or substance addiction problem. I am beginning to think this woman has some sort of problem, and her partner may not be the villain I thought he was.

When we have finished the meal service, most of the passengers get busy watching movies and we go through the cabin and encourage passengers at the window seats to lower the shades. The vast majority oblige so the cabin becomes relatively dark. Helen returns to her seat to either watch a show on her entertainment screen or the show being put on by the couple seated opposite her. She does both.

The couple has now taken their ‘show' under their blankets. It is obvious what they are up to, and their grunts and groans are not in the least bit subtle. That said, nobody, including Helen, has yet to formally complain about them.

Damien and I are in the galley when a ruckus of sorts erupts in the forward section of the cabin. Passengers are yelling, and there is clearly trouble. We race toward the commotion. The attractive albeit inebriated woman has hit her partner. She has also swung punches at another male passenger who attempted to intervene in the couple's fight. She is still raging as we approach her.

Damien and I wrestle her to the ground. When she stops struggling, we slowly get her to her feet and with the help of the passenger who had been hit we shuffle her quickly to the back galley.

What follows is a scene from
The Exorcist
. She does everything but spin her head around and vomit green gunk. Her partner also follows us to the galley. He is not injured, nor is the other passenger who was hit, but the woman is having a complete meltdown. She is not throwing punches at others anymore, but she is in real danger of hurting herself. She punches her fists into the galley benches before slumping into a heap on the floor. This is only momentary as she pulls herself back to her feet and begins belting at the galley ovens, while using language that most rap-artists might shy away from speaking. Her rant is incoherent, even illogical, yet the swear words she uses are clear, fully comprehensible and very loud.

Most of the passengers within the cabin can hear the woman's turrets-style syndrome outbursts. Seated near the galley is a family with young children. Nobody should be subjected to the language coming from this woman's mouth, especially children.

She has completely lost the plot and is unable to understand or follow any of our instructions. I make an emergency call to the other crew, which includes Kate. We need help, and we need it quickly. This woman could seriously hurt herself or someone else.

Both Damien and I have taken positions in front of the doors on either side of the galley entry. The doors cannot be opened in flight (due to the cabin pressurisation) however we do keep our emergency equipment and phones there, and we can't afford to have the woman damage them. She continues to self-destruct in and around the galley, but we manage to keep her confined to those areas only.

As the yelling, the cursing and the commotion continues, increasing in volume, passengers previously unaware of the drama start removing their headsets and start listening. Helen is one of those passengers who can see all the drama unfolding. Even the couple attempting to join the mile-high-club put their passion on hold as they lift their heads from under their blanket to watch. Most people have not seen the woman punching the men or Damien and me wrestling her to the ground, but nearly all can now see or hear the ongoing saga and put two and two together.

Several of the crew members, including Kate, enter the galley. There is no way we can reason with the poltergeist woman. Her partner is in shock and completely useless in the situation. We ask him to go through her handbag so as we may see what medication she is on – she is definitely on something, we are all sure of this. Three or four glasses of wine could not have caused
this
. He goes through the contents of the woman's handbag to confirm that it contains a cocktail of pills – she is on a variety of medications, including antidepressants. We can only guess she has washed down a handful of pills with the wine we served her.

The psychiatric nurse seated next to Helen has also been watching the drama. She comes to the galley and offers her assistance. Kate is appreciative of the nurse's concerns, but asks that she stand clear for some time. Kate immediately calls the captain and explains the situation. Without hesitation the captain gives the authority to restrain the woman and to do so immediately.

Kate relays the message to us, and I go directly to the stowage where the restraint equipment is stored. I know the location well – not only because I've been studying all the equipment locations for my upcoming emergency training but also because I've had to use the same equipment on my previous Honolulu flight. I return with a set of handcuffs, called flexi-cuffs. The woman is still in meltdown-mode and although she still is wriggling and pacing around the galley, she is completely unaware that we are restraining her. It is quite easy to spin her around and pull her hands behind her back and slip the cuffs over her wrists.

Once her hands have been cuffed behind her back, we move her to our crew-rest seats. At this point she becomes aware she has been restrained and starts squealing like a wounded animal. The only decipherable words to come out of her mouth are profanities – loud, loud profanities.

She now resists our attempts to seat her, and we eventually have to force her down and strap her in. She is spitting, swearing and then spitting some more. Although cuffed and held back with a tightened seatbelt, she is still a danger to herself and bashes her head into the seat in front of her. She is now bleeding from the mouth, but that doesn't stop her from screaming louder. She continues to spit, but this time she is spitting blood.

We decide to try and sedate her – and try is the keyword here. This is not going to be an easy task as the woman is still thrashing around, screaming, spitting blood. We wait for the bleeding of the mouth to subside, but just as it appears to stop, the woman bashes her head against the seat again and reopens the gash on her lips. We suspect that she may have also bitten her tongue. With AIDS and hepatitis now a common issue, no one is game enough to get near the woman.

While we wait for the bleeding and spitting to cease, Kate liaises with the nurse standing by. The medical kit onboard is opened, and a syringe and a sedative drug is taken out of it. Only a qualified medical person can use the syringe, so that task is handed over to the nurse.

The amount of energy this retrained woman has expended is incredible, yet she continues to thrash, bash, spit, bleed and yell out words that no woman on the planet should use. It probably takes a good ten minutes for the thrashing and bashing to subside before we can get close enough to her.

Kate comes up with a plan. She wears rubber gloves (three on each hand) and reaches over the top of the woman's head to cover her mouth, so the woman cannot spit blood on us. Damien and I then pin the woman down, allowing the nurse to inject her.

We hold the restrained woman's upper body down as best we can, and the nurse injects the syringe into the woman's arm. The poltergeist thrashes around so much that we are unable to keep her completely still and the needle in the syringe snaps off. The broken needle sticks out of the arm.

‘This is getting ridiculously horrible,' Damien mutters, horrified. I agree with him.

There is enough of the needle sticking out of the woman's arm that the nurse, who shows incredible courage, is able to wrap her gloved fingers around it and pull it out. The nurse is certain that most of the sedative drug had been injected into the woman's bloodstream before the needle broke. She then instructs us to let go of the woman. Damien and I let go and step away. Kate removes her hand from the woman's mouth and quickly retreats. The restrained woman screams more obscenities and even louder, if that is at all possible. However, as the minutes trickle by, the woman begins to lose steam.

I have never seen someone sedated before. For some reason I thought it would be an instantaneous thing. I am surprised, and a little disappointed, that it is not. We all thought she would crash and fall asleep, but she doesn't. It is only 1,350 profanities later that the medication starts working, and she slowly but surely starts to settle down.

When I first applied to be a flight attendant, never in my wildest dreams (or nightmares) did I think I would have to hold down a blood-spitting, cursing lunatic so a nurse can inject her in the arm to sedate her. But here am I, doing exactly that.

sometimes you can feel too sorry for someone

Our crew-rest area is now out of bounds. Blood has been spat everywhere and so much so that it looks like a crime scene in there. Besides who would want to sit anywhere near the Poltergeist anyway? We might not have any place to sit during breaks, but at least the cabin is quiet. We move the Poltergeist's partner into the crew-rest seat next to her. He doesn't want to be there. He is beyond embarrassed by her behaviour; he is mortified and close to speechless. If the relationship was not completely doomed before this flight, it is now.

Even so, he came onboard with her, and it is his responsibility to be by her side at least for the duration of the flight. Kate explains to him about the procedure he and his partner would have to follow on landing. His partner's outburst has major ramifications. The handcuffs will not and cannot be taken off until she has been handed over to the authorities – the aircraft will be met by the police on landing, and she will be taken into custody. The partner nods his head in acceptance, but he is in so much shock and denial that he barely comprehends the gravity of the situation.

Kate tries to get some background information about the woman from her partner. He is not much of a conversationalist and answers almost every question with a simple ‘yes' or ‘no', rarely elaborating. Kate comes back to the galley to bring us up to date. They were a couple, both relationship-wise and in business. They worked in the entertainment industry and had been together for nine years. They had, however, just broken up before the flight. She does have a history of mental illness, but he did not elaborate. A few years ago, she had a similar breakdown on a flight, but in that instance she was not cuffed, but was escorted off the aircraft.

Well, in this instance, I am certain that things aren't going to go as easily for her. I am also certain she won't be flying with our airline again.

Kate and I talk with some of the passengers who had been seated near the woman and her partner (her ex-partner now) to gather information about how it all started. Kate also needs witness-forms, detailing the events, to be filled out by some of those passengers. The paperwork relating to such an incident is often more work than the incident itself.

A few passengers, especially those who witnessed us sedating the woman and noticed the needle sticking out of her arm, comment that we were a little rough with her, and even hurt her. The fact that this woman had punched two people, then terrorised the crew, smashed up the galley and swore repetitively in front of young children seems to be lost on these people. The crew members have been traumatised, but some passengers ignore that tiny detail and decide to sympathise with the woman who has caused all the grief in the first place. I can understand how some people can feel sorry for the woman – in fact, I can't help but feel a little sorry for her myself – but the reality is that she posed a threat to not only herself, but to everyone else on this flight. The crew members were as caring and responsible as we could be, and I think we did a brilliant job in such difficult circumstances.

I eventually make it back to the galley. As soon as I walk in, Helen rushes in to see how I am doing. She is absolutely astonished at the dramatic turn of events she has witnessed, and she only saw half of it. I know she will tell stories about this trip, both good and bad, for decades to come.

I put on a brave face and pretend I am not affected by the events, although I am. I can't stop thinking about the woman, now sedated, cuffed and basically under house arrest. It is hard to feel much pity for her. After all, her actions have affected so many people. However, she is mentally ill. When we land she will be handed over to the police and probably charged. Instead, she should be taken to a mental institute, where they can give her the help she needs. The nurse onboard, who works at a mental hospital, also agrees with me.

But it is not our decision to make.

The mood in the cabin has turned somewhat somber. Nearly all the passengers are still preoccupied with the events that have just occurred.

Well, nearly all, but not all.

One would think that witnessing a woman spitting blood and yelling obscenities in the voice of the antichrist would be enough to dampen anyone's sexual appetite. But one would be thinking wrong.

The couple seated opposite Helen is at it again. This time, someone does complain about them. I let Damien handle this one. I stay back in the galley, but watch Damien walk up to them and then begin his speech.

‘Hey lovebirds, most of the passengers and the crew have just had to witness a woman do everything except soil herself. If we have to see any of your exposed body parts, I'll personally drag you and those body parts to the crew-rest seats. You will then get to sit next to Ms. Poltergeist herself and let her spit some blood on you. You get my drift?'

Damien then, realising that he is probably being a little too harsh with the young couple, gives them a wink and tells them to take their love-fest into the toilet. ‘God knows if someone is desperate enough to have sex in an aircraft toilet, but if you are, then good luck to you.' Damien then walks away.