Wrangellite transitions from teeth to tenants to terminals

Ruth Stough will enter this year a third act in a varied career.

After completing three days of in-flight training last week, Stough will join the ranks of the attendants for Horizon. She'll make regional hops on Bombardier Q400 turboprop planes to locations in Alaska. Prior to becoming a flight attendant, she managed properties in Wrangell and owned a rental business in Sitka. Before that, she was a dental hygienist for 22 years.

"My daughter graduated from high school, and it just seemed like it was time to do something that I thought was kind of fun," she said.

While most fliers are familiar with the pre-flight safety instructions (some frequent fliers can recite them from memory) and drink service, the primary focus of the extensive hiring process and month-long flight attendant school is safety, Stough said.

"When you look at a flight attendant, you think she's just saying hi and she's making sure you've got your seatbelt fastened, but they're so much more involved than I ever imagined," she said.

For example, attendants are the first ones on the scene in the event of a medical

emergency aloft. They have to deal with fires in pressure conditions different from those on the ground, and potentially hazardous lithium batteries.

"Our purpose on the plane is safety," she said. "If someone goes into cardiac arrest on a flight, how do we respond to that?"

They also have to deal with a fairly large number of smokers jonesing for nicotine on a long flight, who sometimes ignore safety instructions and light up anyway, Stough said.

"Fifty-five percent of the emergencies on an aircraft are fires in lavatories," she said.

Flight attendants also undergo security training, but can't disclose the particulars, sharing at least one job characteristic with secret agents, Stough said.

"I can't talk about it," she said. "It's very strictly regulated. Everyone knows about bombs and terrorists and things. We have to be aware of things, let's put it that way."

Her first day of in-flight training took her from Portland to Seattle to Spokane, back to Seattle, back to Portland, to Fresno, to San Diego, and then back to Fresno.

"I was in San Diego, I never saw San Diego, because you never get off of the airplane," she said.

While the number of flights in a single day might give some pause, the multi-stop lifestyle was a natural fit, Stough said. She's traveled extensively in Alaska, biked in East Africa, visited Europe, and grew up in Wrangell, where planes and boats are the norm for long-distance travel. Would-be flight attendants should consider the travel involved, and whether they enjoy traveling for a living, Stough said.

"First is deciding you're willing to have an upside-down lifestyle traveling," she said. "I love to travel. I've traveled quite a bit, that's part of the allure of being a flight attendant."

The process started with an online application. Of the 1,200 applicants, 14 eventually interviewed. More than fifty successful interviewees showed up for the month-long attendant school. Of these, forty graduated, Stough said.

Days at flight attendant school ran from about 7:15 a.m. to 6 p.m. at night, with additional study expected afterwards, Stough said.

"I went to flight attendant school for a month in Portland," she said. "I thought dental hygiene school was intense, but flight attendant school is" more intense.

Stough will work primarily between Fairbanks and Anchorage.

"It's not nine-to-five," she said. "It's going to have upside-down spontaneous type of stuff, and I didn't like the idea of sitting in an office."