Crew Take Offs
Before I began my flying career I worked for a time in retail security where there is an environment of absolutely no pilfering. Despite the consequences, retail staff would steal for the thrill and loose their jobs. When I began to fly I realised civil aviation is a different kettle of fish. I observed that most flight deck/cabin crew would take off miniatures, soft drinks and dry stores for personal consumption. However, there were some who would blatantly abuse the opportunity. I recall going into the front galley towards the end of a flight and seeing the purser’s pilot's case full of miniatures still wrapped in cardboard and cellophane packaging. In addition they had bagged two bottles of champagne in a duty free carrier bag. One purser towards the end of each flight would routinely scout for anything that they may take home. Milk, coffee, tea, bread, soft drinks, chocolates, as well as miniatures. On one trip I decided to be mischievous and nabbed the unopened milk carton from the rear galley before the purser did their ‘rounds’. When they arrived and saw that the milk carton had disappeared a look of abject misery crossed their face, a terse comment and then a flurry back to the front galley. One crew member told me that she made a passenger a special order cup of tea. She looked for the small packets of biscuits to accompany the drink. There were none in her galley, which she thought strange as the catering load had been complete. She went to the front galley. There too, no small packets of biscuits. It transpired the purser had put them all in a duty free carrier bag to take home for a relative’s bed and breakfast business. This was in spite of a previous management crack down. Unsuspecting, a crew alighted from a crew bus following a trip. As the crew neared their cars to offload their stash before debriefing, to the crew’s horror, a director revealed themselves! In a panic some bottles of champagne ended up over wire fences. Reminds me of drugs down the toilet! Crew Hotels were a feeding ground for these frenzied fellows. I heard of a crew member pinching a duvet cover from a hotel and boasting; “They wash up really well.” At a Ritz-Carlton hotel crew would routinely take the large water glasses. Why would anyone wish to hold up a Ritz-Carlton hotel glass with the distinctive lion and coronet icon for a knees up?