When soaring to your dream holiday at 30,000 feet, the last thing you want to experience is any kind of emergency. However, most of the time, these situations are outside of our control. 

According to Del Willden, an ex-flight attendant who worked with British Airways for 26 years, while major medical emergencies onboard are rare, they do occur. In fact, he only experienced two during his entire career as cabin crew. When a situation like this does take place, here are some little-known protocols staff have to follow, which Mr Willden has revealed, one of which most Brits will not know about cabin crew training.

In the event of a medical emergency, Mr Willden – a former purser (senior cabin crew manager) – said cabin crew would always start by asking passengers if there was a medical professional on board. Ideally this would be a doctor, nurse or paramedic, however there was one other suprising profession which may be called upon for assistance. 

“We were always told that if a medical professional didn’t come forward, but a vet came forward and was prepared to help, we were allowed to accept that,” he explained to Metro. “We had to get them to sign a form of indemnity before they started to help and it would usually only be if a situation was so serious it warranted help urgently.”

Until a medical professional came forward, it fell to the cabin crew to provide as much first aid assistance as they could. According to Mr Willden, the medical training given to flight attendants is much more rigorous than most Brits realise.

“Until a professional came forward, we would act accordingly. So if it was a heart attack, we’d commence CPR immediately, while another crew member would gather equipment, like a defibrillator and oxygen, and someone else would keep the captain informed of the situation,” he added.

On top of being trained in CPR, Mr Willden said he was also taught how to deliver a baby. Each plane also had its own special medical kit on board called an M5. Half of the kit was for crew to use, while the other half was intended for professional medical use, such as a catheter for issues with urination or blood clots. 

If there were no medical professionals on board the flight to help, cabin crew would be able to call a company called MedLink for advice in the event of an onboard medical emergency.

Cabin crew are also trained to deal with both pre-planned and catastrophic emergencies. The former allows for a bit more time to deal with, such as the loss of hydraulics needed for landing. In a situation like this, Del said there would be an “alert call” over the PA system from the captain, who would ask the senior cabin crew to report to the flight deck immediately. They would then give their crew a “NITS” breakdown of the emergency, which stands for nature, intention, time and special instructions. This may include preparing for an emergency landing.

In the event of a catastrophic emergency, such as a plane crash, Mr Willden said: “If you survive whatever is happening, there’s no time involved to make a plan, you basically based on your training would have to use your instincts and find a way to get passengers out of the plane. But before you open any doors, the most crucial step would be to look for fire or any other kind of danger”.