From stewardesses in hats and gloves, to flight attendants allowed to wed, smoking to non-smoking cabins, permanent to contract, no-leave maternity to maternity leave and with pay to boot, from no braids to braids, passenger access to the cockpit to zero access our Love Birds have certainly come a long way from April 1969 when 56 ladies were selected from 10,000 applicants to commence training in Montreal, Canada.

Me And My Crew

Sandra Curtis Campbell one of the original flight attendants shares her memories with SO…

They wanted 56 Flight Attendants to launch Jamaica’s first and only National carrier. So said the ads. We heard at various times figures as high as 10,000, the number of applications received.

Our hire date was February 3rd, 1968. Four of us had not yet reached our 18th birthday. Most of us had never left home before. Most of us had never flown on an airplane before. Most of us had never left Jamaica before. Starting salary was Sterling16.00 per month. For the next three weeks we attended classes in: Grooming, Deportment, Etiquette, Makeup, etc. One of the rules about Makeup — eyeshadow was brown and white only, and worn at all times. Our uniforms turned out to be mini dresses in colours of lime green, yellow and fuschia. Accessories were beige gloves and beige plastic shoes. If you have never had corns, bunions and blisters all at once, then you cannot empathise!

Towards the end of March we left for Montreal, Canada for six weeks of intensive training given by Air Canada’s finest. The day we landed, we were all clad in minis, shirts and a spring coat which the company had provided. It was supposed to be Spring but that day Montreal had the worst snow storm in 50 years. The temperature was below freezing — check out the “Rare Tropical Birds”! We had not even started and we were already shrunk to half our normal size. Bienvenue and Welcome to Canada!

We travelled by bus each morning to Dorval Airport for our training, a base where 20,000 men worked. The courses were intense and failing grades were not an option. Part of our training involved practising a ditching – a la landing on the Hudson River! It was not a pretty sight!

We shared rooms at our hotel and curfew was 10:00pm each night. Stuffing the pillows under the sheets did not work. Your roommate answering for you, “She’s in the bathroom” was greeted with “I’ll wait”. Our housemistress did a visual check. If you got caught breaking curfew, the punishment was the first flight out to Jamaica. Yet we managed to meet up with quite a few Jamaican students studying at McGill University, who kindly showed us around.

Then it was back home. Air Jamaica’s first flight took off on April 1st, 1968. We were using DC8 stretch and DC9 airplanes. Our pilots were all Canadians (our Jamaican pilots came later). The likes of Ralph Leek, Ross DeJardines, Ray McGregor, Hughie Alcorn, Bernie Mac etc.

Every flight was full, every day. Our passengers were a delight; so varied in culture, in speech, in language, in mannerisms. From the tourists who ask “do you all have electricity, water and telephone on the island?” to the farm worker who on being offered a soda asks “Yu sell Wrigleys?” to the elderly overburdened (with hand luggage) grandmother who when you suggest “Mother why don’t you put some of your hand luggage in the overhead bin, you need space for your legs?” she responds “Mi look like yu Mumma?” to the Jamaican businessman travelling First Class who on being offered a glass of orange juice responds “Is it freshly squoozened?”. We flew the likes of Marlon Brando, Smoking Joe Frazier, Kareem Abdul Jabbar (he bought four First Class seats for himself), Marvin Gaye, Roberta Flack (frequent flyer).

We were full to capacity one night going to New York — 221 souls on board. In that 221 was a group of Jamaican churchgoers numbering about 90. About one hour out of New York the Captain made an announcement suspending services and advising us to fasten seat belts as we were about to encounter turbulence. Five minutes into the turbulence, the first hymn was raised Nearer my God to Thee. All the verses were sung and the second hymn was raised Amazing Grace. About halfway through that one we were once again flying in clear skies. The group closed with a short prayer of thanks.

Our Jamaican pilots came and there was a change in the atmosphere. Mark you the Canadians were nice, very nice, polite, calm, soft spoken. The Jamaicans were all that and more. They brought with their spirit of adventure, their sense of fun, their braggadocio. Dem wake up de place. The likes of Robert Hamaty, and Churchill Bodden (him Cayman accent nearly kill we). Above all there was always a sense of security, safety and comfort.

Jean Bell Robinson: The Last Lady

“I’ve seen everything and I was on the inside for it all, but this one hits me the hardest; this time, I know it’s final,” rues Jean Bell Robinson, the only member of the 56 original Air Jamaica stewardesses still with the national carrier.

The airline’s closure, set to happen on April 12, for Robinson marks the end of an era after what some would describe as a turbulent 41-year run. In fact, she muses of the early days, in 1968 to be exact, when the maiden flight seemed unlikely, though it’s all laughable now.

“When we started training in Montreal we’d get some scary calls that the airline wasn’t going to start,” the femme d’un certain âge reminisces, “but it did, and lasted for 41 years.”

And during those years she had an amazing experience as one of the ‘Rare Tropical Birds’ — a term, which to the post-modern woman, as Robinson puts it, might be quite offensive… even possibly stirring threats of lawsuits or inciting feminists to bear placards. The Air Jamaica exec tells SO of those seductive first uniforms, think mini-dresses in three colours: pink, green and yellow that were alternated according to the flight.

She fondly recalls, too, a time when the airline industry relied much more heavily on providing quality service ( and her cohort represented service to the fullest with pride) rather than the safety-obsessed milieu that exists post 9/11.

“Post 9/11 a number of jokes made the rounds… ‘that couldn’t be an Air Jamaica plane, because our higglers would deal with those terrorists, one rum bottle over the head and that would be it’,” Robinson, now route operation supervisor jokes.

“Jamaicans loved their airline, and you could feel it whenever they stepped onboard…it was theirs and that meant something.”

She beams, removing her frames to reveal glassy eyes that seem to convey the love she holds for ‘the little piece of Jamaica that flies’.

“It’s the kind of place where family is treasured,” she tells SO, “where we take pleasure in each other’s lives, marriages, christenings and graduations.”

Robinson explains, too, that even those who have moved on from being employed by the national carrier still very much consider themselves part of the family.

But even the thought of a strong support group isn’t enough to overshadow the impending D-day… the Caribbean Airlines takeover is coming.

“Nobody knows how many persons they are going to keep, my options are open, but it’s definitely the end,” Robinson shares, noting that the ominous atmosphere fosters a sort of tension within the organisation.

“It’s a business and decisions have to be made, let’s take the lesson for what it is and learn all we can from it,” advises Robinson who, though pragmatic about the last days of Air Jamaica is nevertheless emotional.

“Even when I’m driving in from the country and I see an Air Jamaica plane overhead, it does something to me… it means a lot to me and it’s going to be a very emotional parting.”

Molly Walton: ‘We served with pride’

Molly Walton served the national carrier as training instructor for 33 years.

Walton, who is a part of the original 56 Air Jamaica stewardesses, was promoted after just one year in the skies. She fondly remembers the early days and the mandate the first ladies were given.

“We were putting Air Jamaica on the map in the face of all these big international carriers,” Walton recalls, “it was about giving Jamaicans pride of place.”

Walton who has trained generations of flight attendants, recalls that the training specifications she received while training with Air Canada in Montreal back in ’68 were the very same standards she upheld during her sessions. Laughing, she shares how scary those initial sessions were.

“Training was scary, but after a while you got used to it,” Walton said explaining that she especially loved the ‘ditching’ exercises — some of which took place aboard the coast guard vessels at Lime Cay.

“As the instructor I was sometimes afraid, but the girls were looking to you as an example, for support… so you had to just jump,” she quips.

Walton is most proud of her three-decade long association with the national carrier and feels that despite the glitches and ultimately, the soon-to-come unfortunate closure, there’s still a lot to be grateful for.

“We proved to the world that we were as good as, if not better than, the big boys like BOAC (now British Airways) and Pan-American Airlines,” Walton notes.

“The further delight was that in just a short time we became the preferred carrier on the Miami and New York routes, and the big airlines at one point had to reduce their frequency in Jamaica.”

The former stewardess pauses, thinking on the flight industry of the present, where things are a lot more stringent.

“Security is a top priority these days to the point where it may be frightening to the inexperienced traveller,” Walton adds.

That said, she’s back to beaming about her time as a ‘Rare Tropical Bird’.

“We were ladies… the flight attendant today sees this as just a job, we were charged with the responsibility to establish the airline and that gave us motivation.”

Though she’s no longer at Air Jamaica, Walton still feels she’s part of the family and couldn’t hide her emotions.

“This morning (Friday last) I was looking these photos of the Air Jamaica days and I was in tears,” she sighs, “it’s as if all that you have worked for is just gone.”

The very first batch of Air Jamaica stewardesses:

1. Lorna Ainsworth

2. Barbara Anderson

3. Lilla Bennett

4. Joan Binns

5. Maureen Brown

6. Irma Clarke

7. Marlene Cooper

8. Angela Cuervo

9. Sandra Curtis-Campbell

10. Sonia Wallace

11. Elsa Dawkins

12. Sylvia Delvalle

13. Helen Dujon

14. Yvonne Earle

15. Marcia Finzi

16. Carol Gray

17. June Higgins

18. Valerie Hinds

19. Alice Hogarth

20. Athlene Holness

21. Fay Hutchinson

22. Dahlia Hylton

23. Maxine Johnson

24. Cecile Kameka

25. Stephanie Khan

26. Colleen Kong

27. Joy Lewis

28. Judith Lynch

29. Barbara Matadeen

30. Doreen McLaughlin

31. Beverley McKinley

32. Hyacinth Moore

33. Lois Morgan

34. Margaret Nash

35. Hortense Noble

36. Ann Marie Phillips

37. Janice Provost-Heron

38. Jean Robinson

39. Brenda Rhoden

40. Andrea Rousseau

41. Patricia Samuels

42. Winsome Thomas

43. Maxine Walters

44. Molly Walton

45. Jean Ann Young

46. Joy Young

47. Pauline Silvera

48. Doreen Williamson

49. Beverly King

The Concorde and Air Jamaica

An agreement was brokered in 1986 to fly the Concorde on Air Jamaica’s New York route for a six-week period. The flight would be operated by British Airways crew and one Air Jamaica purser on board to afford a Jamaican presence. Fay Hutchinson, Carol Gray, Frances Bravo and Barbara Clarke were selected and in November recalls former Air Jamaica purser Frances Bravo “The four of us arrived in London for training. As experienced pursers who were qualified on all Air Jamaica aircraft, DC-9, DC-8, B-727, B-747, Airbus A-300, this was another to add to the list. The training was similar to what we were used to. We were taught where all the coatrooms were, restrooms, galleys etc and there were first aid courses too. The slide was soooo narrow and seemed miles high. Ditching was conducted indoors (no water) but a raft like we had. The teachers ignored the fact that we were experienced and started from scratch. The pass mark as I recall was 95 per cent.

Flying at supersonic speed is not so different to a regular flight except during takeoff, the G-forces pin you into the seat. Only a small part of the flight was at supersonic speed this as a result of New York’s noise restrictions and Cuba lying between New York and Jamaica. The flight time was not much less than normal. At cruising altitude one could see the curvature of the earth. The passenger cabin is surprisingly small with only 100 passengers seats.

Concorde’s first flight was on January 21, 1976 and the last on October 24, 2003. Bravo who flew for a period of 27 years cites the period spent on the Concorde as “an experience I cherish…I would have wished for everyone to have had the opportunity to fly on her. This has to have been one of the most beautiful creations by man.

Fay Hutchinson: The Life Saver

Original stewardess Fay Hutchinson was trained in Montreal, Canada and was too Concorde trained. Hutchinson recalls her Concorde celebrity passengers like: boxers Joe Fraser and George Foreman, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Aretha Franklin to name a few. There was too in her 27 years of flying “only one major scare… We were on a flight to JFK airport, New York and crossing over Cuba. There was an explosion in the galley that ripped out the ceiling. Fortunately the fuselage was not damaged… a flight attendant en route to the galley was stopped by a passenger… this action literally saved her life”. All in all flying was a beautiful experience during which time Fay took the opportunity to obtain her university degree.