Today was an open day for me which I turned into willing to fly and was eventually turned into a home standby from 3am to 3pm. I was sleeping when my phone rang at 440a. I was upgraded to a turnaround Alexandria flight. When I checked the crew list, I was the most senior and so, I am expected to be the acting supervisor for the operating legs. Thinking about the tasks of a supervisor by seeing them during the flight made me say it's easy. It's easy but whatever goes wrong, I know the responsibilities are mine.
I conducted a briefing like how it normally goes. I met the other four girls. Two of them were only 5 months flying and the other two were almost 2 years. And I am a few months away to 3 years. That actually made me ask if I was legal to lead the flight with all our seniority dates. I didn't check and look for answers in our manuals but the Captain did when we were all on board, making sure we were following standards. I appreciated how thorough our PIC briefed us in almost all safety procedures.
The flight went well. I received so many papers from ground personnel to the point of not knowing what to do with them :D. I had to press the many buttons and selections from the cabin system realizing I was already playing with them. Haha! I had to board everyone, check that everything was secured before take off and landing. I had to help in the galley especially when R1 had to attend the cockpit's needs and serve the business class passengers, too. Guest class was full but good thing the load in business was light or else I would have been here and there. I had to make sure slides were disarmed before any normal door openings.
When we arrived in Alexandria, I handed the general declaration of the crew and the passenger manifest to the staff who welcomed our flight. In several flights, I have observed supervisors giving the empty insecticide bottle sprays (sprays we use to spray the cabin after take off) to ground staff, too, so I gave the whole thing to the man. I do not know what they do with those sprays next but the next thing I know, I was being reprimanded by our PIC for giving out those sprays. A staff went spraying those bottles in the cargo giving flight deck an indication that there was smoke going on. They later on discovered that it was only due to the insecticide sprays. Fire and smoke whether in the cabin or cargo are serious matters. Then the ground staff was also reprimanded. He said that they too normally receive those sprays upon arrival and spraying the cargo is what they do afterwards. I had no idea! But one thing's for sure. Though we all used up all the sprays, there must have been little left behind in a bottle that they were able to use up.
I thought I'd already lost my job that moment on. When I said I was sorry, our Captain said no, it wasn't my fault. :) It was a safe flight back to base and I'm happy I've learned a lot of things today.
Thank you, Lord. :)
