This is one of the many questions that flight attendant hopefuls wonder about. The answer is yes, they do. In fact, one of the main duties of a cabin crew member is to keep the aircraft clean. This includes cleaning the toilets.
Flight attendants should clean up after passengers
“It's the flight attendant's job to come around occasionally to pick up trash and other debris. Anything that falls on the floor generally stays there until the plane has landed and the clean-up crew comes on board,” Whitmore told Today.
Let's start at the beginning: Every surface of an airplane lavatory is supposed to be cleaned with disinfectants and deodorizers after each arrival and during overnight layovers.
They can't talk loudly in the cabin
“There are personal behavioural guidelines that flight attendants are asked to follow,” says Ward, such as not talking to one another loudly in the cabin, the galleys or on jump seats about personal lives, work, etc because voices carry on aeroplanes.
The vacuum toilet works by opening a valve into the sewer line and the vacuum sucks all the waste into a tank using very little water. The speed at the vacuum sucks the contents of the bowl into the tank has been clocked as moving faster than a Formula 1 race car!
Flight Attendants are responsible for keeping the toilets clean for passengers. They do basic cleaning such as wiping down surfaces and replenishing supplies such as toilet paper, hand soap, and paper towels.
The toilet's vacuum swirls its contents and deposits all the collected waste, and that blue liquid, into a “closed waste system.” However, contrary to popular belief, the captain of the plane does not have the ability to detach the toilet tank and send it plummeting mid-flight.
Bracing in a planned emergency
This allows for the cabin crew to still be able to hear and shout emergency commands whilst protecting the face and head from any flying debris.
Training days
It is a stressful time, and has to be, because flight attendants may have to deal with an emergency and must be calm and focused in such an event. Not everyone survives training as some people realize it's not the job for them or they don't make the grade.
Airline pilots take turns using the bathroom nearest the cockpit during a flight. There are no bathrooms installed in the cockpit. For airplanes with a single pilot, diapers, catheters, or collection devices are used if they are unable to land to use the airport bathroom.
An airplane bathroom does not use the water like a regular bathroom. Instead, it uses a vacuum system, and when it flushes it moves into a septic tank that is on the airplane. The pipes used are much smaller than regular plumbing pipes and they can be placed in any direction since they do not use gravity and water.
An airliner may be deep cleaned about once a month, or once every two months, depending on the airline. In between flights, the ground crew completes a 'clean sweep' of the cabin, taking out trash, dirty pillows and blankets. The floor may be swiftly vacuumed and mopped.
Because of the importance of crew rest, many widebody aircraft have a secret room reserved for crew members so they can sleep between shifts.
Flight attendants on long-haul flights are provided with spaces to rest. Here's a photo of the crew rest area on a Boeing 787. Crew rest areas exist on all airplanes, but what these rest areas look like depends on the airline, aircraft and the length of the flight.
But truth be told, we're the exception to the rule. While there are many pilot and flight attendant couples, and many flight attendants married or committed to other flight attendants, and many pilots with the same connections with other pilots, several factors have made those connections less likely.
The use of high heels in flight attendant uniforms dates back to the early days of air travel, and was originally a holdover from the dress codes of registered nurses who were the first air stewards. It was believed that high heels would make female flight attendants look smart and presentable.
"We have something on-board called 'smoke hoods'," Kaylee explained in the video. "So, in case there is a fire on-board that we need to fight, we have something that we can put on over [our heads] so we can still be breathing oxygen and not be breathing in the smoke as we're fighting the fire."
At 21 years old, you can apply to be a flight attendant with any airline. Minimum age requirements typically apply at the time of training completion, so candidates who will reach an airline's minimum age during training can apply for flight attendant roles. There is no upper age limit for flight attendants.
Spirit now ranks at the top again — for the rudest flight attendants. A survey of 3,400 people by the travel website Airfarewatchdog found that 26% said Spirit has the rudest flight attendants. Air Canada came in second with 14%, followed by Frontier Airlines with 11% and Virgin America with 9%.
How fit you are. Because their first concern is safety, what flight attendants notice about you has much to do with your ability to keep yourself and others safe. They'll make a mental note of passengers who are in good shape and who can help lift heavy items and lend a hand if necessary.
Flight attendants are trained in first aid – and this covers panic attacks and supporting people with anxiety on a flight.
Fuel dumping (or a fuel jettison) is a procedure used by aircraft in certain emergency situations before a return to the airport shortly after takeoff, or before landing short of the intended destination (emergency landing) to reduce the aircraft's weight.
Passengers should use the lavatory in their ticketed cabin first. First class passengers should have priority for the forward lavatory. However during drink service on a single aisle aircraft passengers blocked from walking back to the lavatory should be able to use the closest lav.