Flight Attendants Relay Tales of Woe

Flight attendants told a congressional panel that although they were beaten and urinated on by passengers they got little help or support from their airlines. The testimony came at a hearing of the House Transportation Aviation Subcommittee, called to consider the plight of airline employees caught between passengers and the desire of airlines to avoid antagonizing customers. Flight attendant Carol Knaffl told the committee that on one flight she emerged from a bathroom and a passenger urinated on her. The Federal Aviation Administration, she said, told her that if she wanted to prosecute she would have to bear the cost because she was not performing her duties when the incident occurred. Christa Tess, a former flight attendant for American Eagle, said she was assaulted last year by a drunken passenger.