One of our readers, Anastasiya recently
asked for advice on ‘what would you do if...’ questions that are
frequently asked in cabin crew interviews.
‘How can you find out proper answers for interview questions about scenarios on flights,’ she asked.
We put this to a panel of experts including Cabin Crew Consultant Patricia Green, and other cabin crew colleagues at/or previously from British Airways, Etihad, Emirates, Viking, Sky Europe, and Thomson.
Their advice is that really you can only find out by asking an experienced crew member for advice. But they say, don’t worry too much about trying to have one correct answer – often there is no such thing. Questions like this may be asked at interview stage to get an idea of how you respond to stressful or unusual situations onboard – the airline probably does not expect the perfect answer on the spot.
Here are a few such questions to give you some ideas of what to say in cabin crew interviews:
What would you do if you saw one of your colleagues being deliberately rude to a passenger?
This would be very rare, but can happen. Personally, I would try and soften things by offering extra drinks or snacks later and apologise but without saying it was because of the crew member but something like ‘I understand you have had a bit of a problem on this flight and I am really sorry.’ If you feel it to be serious matter, I would tell the Senior Crew Member onboard, just for her reference should the situation get worse…but I would not report a crew member just for the sake of it.
What would you do if a commercially important passenger complained that another commercially important passenger is snoring too loudly behind him?
Apologise and see if you have any seats spare further away from the unfortunate sleeper! If no seats are available, you could offer earplugs…or headphones for noise cancelling (some first class) or ones used for the IFE so he can watch a film instead.
If, for example, there are 60 children on the flight, but you only have 40 toys. How would you deal with this situation?
This would be a very rare situation too, to have so many children onboard. Most airlines carry a mixture of toys/games for different ages – so it may be a case of giving the youngest the soft toy and a little bit older a colouring set – that kind of thing, so you may use all the toys by not sticking to the age brackets. You should also be very discreet in this kind of situation, so as not to cause disappointment. If there was a large shortage, I would probably walk backwards working from the back of the aircraft to the front, so I could see when the toys run out but without being seen too obviously by the passengers at the front.
What would you do if the seat belt signs were on and the aircraft is about to take off, but a passenger insists that he has to kneel down to conduct his prayer due to religious reasons?
Firstly, it would be sensible to make an announcement (or ask a colleague to) asking for passengers to remain in their seats while the seatbelt signs are on. You could then approach the passenger ( if safe to leave your seat…) and ask them to take their seat as it is a safety issue and if they do not the captain will make the decision to return to stand and the flight will be delayed. Obviously, it is a huge safety issue to have a passenger unsecured for take off therefore if the passenger refuses, you would have to inform a senior who will contact the captain and it's likely the plane will have to return to stand, and crew will then have to deal with the delay.
For safety purposes during a flight, it would make sense to ask a senior crew member for their advice on what they would do and why? But for interview purposes, this is more about how you as a person deal with stress and organisation, so don’t over think it and just treat it as an ordinary scenario. There is no wrong or right answer, only if it's a safety related question during training or work – you would never be expected to know this at an assessment day.
Their advice is that really you can only find out by asking an experienced crew member for advice. But they say, don’t worry too much about trying to have one correct answer – often there is no such thing. Questions like this may be asked at interview stage to get an idea of how you respond to stressful or unusual situations onboard – the airline probably does not expect the perfect answer on the spot.
Here are a few such questions to give you some ideas of what to say in cabin crew interviews:
What would you do if you saw one of your colleagues being deliberately rude to a passenger?
This would be very rare, but can happen. Personally, I would try and soften things by offering extra drinks or snacks later and apologise but without saying it was because of the crew member but something like ‘I understand you have had a bit of a problem on this flight and I am really sorry.’ If you feel it to be serious matter, I would tell the Senior Crew Member onboard, just for her reference should the situation get worse…but I would not report a crew member just for the sake of it.
What would you do if a commercially important passenger complained that another commercially important passenger is snoring too loudly behind him?
Apologise and see if you have any seats spare further away from the unfortunate sleeper! If no seats are available, you could offer earplugs…or headphones for noise cancelling (some first class) or ones used for the IFE so he can watch a film instead.
If, for example, there are 60 children on the flight, but you only have 40 toys. How would you deal with this situation?
This would be a very rare situation too, to have so many children onboard. Most airlines carry a mixture of toys/games for different ages – so it may be a case of giving the youngest the soft toy and a little bit older a colouring set – that kind of thing, so you may use all the toys by not sticking to the age brackets. You should also be very discreet in this kind of situation, so as not to cause disappointment. If there was a large shortage, I would probably walk backwards working from the back of the aircraft to the front, so I could see when the toys run out but without being seen too obviously by the passengers at the front.
What would you do if the seat belt signs were on and the aircraft is about to take off, but a passenger insists that he has to kneel down to conduct his prayer due to religious reasons?
Firstly, it would be sensible to make an announcement (or ask a colleague to) asking for passengers to remain in their seats while the seatbelt signs are on. You could then approach the passenger ( if safe to leave your seat…) and ask them to take their seat as it is a safety issue and if they do not the captain will make the decision to return to stand and the flight will be delayed. Obviously, it is a huge safety issue to have a passenger unsecured for take off therefore if the passenger refuses, you would have to inform a senior who will contact the captain and it's likely the plane will have to return to stand, and crew will then have to deal with the delay.
For safety purposes during a flight, it would make sense to ask a senior crew member for their advice on what they would do and why? But for interview purposes, this is more about how you as a person deal with stress and organisation, so don’t over think it and just treat it as an ordinary scenario. There is no wrong or right answer, only if it's a safety related question during training or work – you would never be expected to know this at an assessment day.