Island Life Magazine Ltd December 2013/January 2014 | Page 21

INTERVIEW
Road, Ryde, heard of the crash on
BBC News the following morning.
They did not know for sure she was
on the plane until they received a
telegram from her a few hours later
saying ‘Am home safe and well,
letter following’.
The horror in the fog did not put
Ann off her job. She said: “I was never
worried about flying again. It is like
falling off a horse, you have to get
back on. I was back in the air inside
three days, and the flight was from
Heathrow to Dublin – the opposite
direction to the route when we
crashed. But it didn’t worry me at all.”
Ann was involved in another
drama when a Vanguard aircraft,
leaving Edinburgh for Heathrow
around midnight suddenly suffered
failure in three of its four engines on
approach. She recalls: “We managed
to land on one engine, and all got
out safely. It was a domestic flight
with about 80 passengers. That plane
was fitted with air stairs, so everyone
escaped injury.”
Her third fortunate escape took
place on yet another flight from
Dublin to Heathrow when engine
failure forced an emergency
landing at Heathrow. She was one
of three cabin crew who carried
out a successful evacuation of
the packed aircraft, with no one
suffering any injuries.
Ann was born at Wootton and
attended Newport Grammar School.
She then went to a catering college in
Portsmouth, but decided to become
an air stewardess when she saw
an advert in the London Evening
Standard. She said: “I applied and got
the job. I had never flown before, but
I just wanted a job I could be proud
of. I saw a lot of the world, some
wonderful places. But I had only
been a stewardess for nine months
when the first accident happened.”
Later Ann spent two years working
at Heathrow for Pan American
Airlines. She said: “One of my jobs
was to search people to make sure
they were not trying to take any
bombs or explosives on board. We
had one X-ray machine, but most of
the checks were done by the staff.”
Despite all the traumas she
suffered, Ann has certainly not lost
her sense of humour. She said: “I left
work to get married, and that was

a real disaster! He was an Irishman,
and I divorced him after three years
when I found out he was in the IRA.”
Later Ann went to Shoreditch
College as a catering controller, and
also did some teaching on the Island
at Parkhurst Primary School, before
she retired. Now she reflects: “My job
as an air stewardess was different;
hard work but interesting. I suppose
it was quite a glamorous job, but it
didn’t pay well!
“I wouldn’t want to be a stewardess
now – the planes have got so much
bigger. But in my days the training
was just as strict. You had to know
where everything was on the plane
– the escape routes, fire exits and
appliances. It was only a five-week
course before I became a stewardess
so I had to learn everything in a
short time. There was a lot more to
it than just serving tea and coffee to
passengers!”
Ann kept a detailed scrapbook of
her career as an air stewardess with
BEA, which includes commendations
and passenger praise. It begins with
‘Ann’s Log’, written by her, and reads:
“Let me say this scrapbook has been
compiled to refresh my memory of
those more precarious moments
experienced in my time as an air
stewardess with BEA. Here’s hoping
we start on an amusing note and end
in a similar vein, for as the saying
goes ‘If you can’t take a joke you
shouldn’t have joined’!”
Ann can take a joke; was glad she
joined, and has happy memories,
despite her three brushes with aircraft
disaster – and a disastrous marriage!

‘I was never
worried about
flying again. It
is like falling
off a horse,
you have to
get back on.’
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