HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A STEWARDESS STRIPPING?

 HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A STEWARDESS STRIPPING?

Former Alitalia flight attendants protested this week against job losses and pay cuts in a particularly Italian way -- by taking their clothes off. In the centre of Rome, about 50 female former flight attendants turned up in their Alitalia uniforms, then removed them to stand in their underwear, chanting "We are Alitalia." This event stirred a memory of a flight from hell that I was on that offered a similar scenario.

I was on a trip from the Canary Islands to Freetown in Sierra Leone with three fellow teachers who were heading for a volunteer summer teaching assignment. Our flight provided me with the most bizarre experience I have ever had. My companions and I were waiting for our flight in an empty Las Palmas airport with only about four other individuals at 3 a.m. awaiting our 4 a.m. departure. The TV flight destination monitors did not indicate that there was a 4 a.m. flight until about 3 a.m. It was heartwarming to know that there was in fact an actual flight. 

We were shopping in Duty Free when a loud speaker announced our names and indicated the plane was waiting for us on the tarmac. It was only 3:30 a.m. but we hustled out to our Sierra Leone Airlines flight and rushed up the moveable stairs to the plane.

Only a few lights illuminated the interior because most passengers were asleep. We had not been given any seating assignments and the stewardess told us to choose any empty seat. Two trips up and down the aisles indicated no vacant seats. I finally stopped at a row of seats occupied by a rather large lady who was stretched over three seats and asked her if I could sit in the aisle seat. She told me to F-off and pulled her blanket around her. I finally had a hostess cajole another person to sit up so that I might sit down rather than fly standing up for three hours.

As the plane ascended with a roar all I could concentrate upon was the noise from the glass bottles (I am assuming empties) that all began rolling toward the back of the plane bouncing off the supports under the seats. If that was not scary enough, at least a dozen or more overhead bins were wide open as we took off and various items were dumped out on to the floor. I am just surmising that these might have been violations of takeoff regulations even for Sierra Leone Airlines.

My final memory occurred as were preparing to land. I was seated near the rear of the plane and as the plane descended, I detected a commotion right behind me. The three stewardesses were taking their clothes off and dressing in their native dresses. When the plane finally taxied and stopped at the gate - the stewardesses opened the back door and they were gone down the stairs and off into the night. They were in far too much of a rush to possibly assist any passenger who might have needed any help. 

So, the girls at Alitalia are not the first to strip in the airline's world. Obviously, the attendants of Sierra Leone Air have been doing it for years!