Elliott Hester

You're belted into a middle seat with burly businessmen on either side. It's ninety-two degrees in the cabin and someone forgot to use deodorant. A baby screams. A kid kicks the back of your seat. After two hours you haven't even left the taxiway. Welcome to modern airline travel! In Plane Insanity, Elliott Hester delivers stories that could only come from someone who "rides tin" for a living---a flight attendant.

You'll hear about:
* the passenger from hell
* a smuggled python
* prostitutes show more working the lavatories
* a riot in coachclass
* a $500,000 heist
* the anatomy of a carry-on bag
* a malodorous couple
* the Mile-High Club
* and much more! show less

Hester was an airline attendant for sixteen years with a major airline and this is a book of essays about what he saw in his years of international travel. From being assaulted by out-of-control passengers, performing an emergency medical procedure, watching a planeload of airsick passengers or randy couples, Hester also writes about what the flight crew is really like once the flight is over.
I didn't put this one in my Autobiography/memoir" category as he often has a co-worker relaying an show more incident in their own words. I should point out that this book was published in 2001, clearly before 9/11 changed the way we fly, and Hester tends to get a little too poetic in his prose for my taste, but it's an interesting read that makes you thankful you weren't on any of the flights mentioned. show less

I *loved* this book. It was passed on to me by another traveller this morning at JFK and it was one of those times I *really* wish I had pre-numbered labels as this could have been the perfect non-security area release--ie on to another passenger or in the plane's book rack--yes, Air Canada has them!

Some bits I liked:

-OK, I'm odd and I read the dedications and title pages and what not--this really struck me so I'm glad I did. Plane Insanity was written, edited and sent to press prior to the show more tragic events of September 11, 2001. As victims rest in peace, why can't we learn to live in it? So so true.

-"...air travel in its purest main-cabin form, is little more than public transportation. Greyhound at thirty thousand feet. Amtrak with wings." *Giggle* so so true, though I was pleasantly surprised by AirCanada. And because the long-haul flight was to and from Osaka, there is some innate courtesy in the Japanese and I didn't see/hear anyone behaving too badly.

A great laugh, especially while travelling cattle class, but I can say for sure I'd never want to be a flight attendant! show less

Being a frequent air traveler and a fan of The Managed Heart by Hochschild, I was all over a collection of flight attendant tales.

There's not a whole lot of substance in this book, but it's an easy and entertaining read. Some of the stories actually had me laughing out loud. Hester's a great and engaging story teller.

I'm an absolute nut for accounts of behavior in dire, life-or-death situations (just consider my obsession with apocalyptic stories). It's human life in the rawest form. show more Hester thrilled me with a story on such a situation. Answered all the questions I would have had if he were telling me the story face-to-face. Definitely looking forward to reading his other book. show less