I have a good one for you today, and it is not your typical Cranky Flier Interview. Today, I talk to Jillian Johnson, United flight attendant, as well as Artemis Bayandor, United corporate safety employee turned translator. That’s Artemis below:
They were kind enough to give me more than half an hour of their time, discussing their experiences working multiple flights full of evacuees from Afghanistan. Jillian had worked flights before the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) was activated, and both worked flights after, often with very different experiences on each flight. Here’s Jillian below on one of her trips:
This interview really helped me to get beyond the headlines and news articles and understand just how difficult and surreal it must have been to be on these flights, from both a crew and passenger perspective. For example, below left is a photo Jillian took of art done by the kids onboard, and on the right are some of the stuffed animals to help comfort them.
You aren’t going to want to miss this one.
Download the episode here or listen below.
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