It was a stormy evening. Our flight crew checked the weather and saw there were two separate storm systems we would need to fly between but there was plenty of time to do so. We loaded our 34 passenger plane almost to capacity and closed the door. Once we were in the air and I could safely do so, I set up my cart for the beverage service. I hadn’t made it to half the passengers when the phone chimed indicating the pilots wanted to talk to me. I rolled my cart back down the aisle and answered the call. The first officer advised me the two storms were unexpectedly merging and I should secure the cabin. They made an announcement to the passengers while I cleaned and stowed my cart and collected garbage. I finished and buckled in to the jump seat just as we came in to turbulence.
At this point in my career as a flight attendant I was experienced enough that turbulence didn’t bother me much. As I sat facing the passengers I continued to wear my confident, reassuring flight attendant face, the interior of the cabin began to turn and odd shaded of green indicating possible hail. Some of the passengers started to look scared and some like they might puke. I made an announcement for passengers to open their air gaspers if they were feeling ill and reminded them there were sick sacks in their seat pockets. One of the passengers I was looking it was a captain from Northwest Airlines. Because he was a captain there, I knew he had a lot of experience. I noticed he looked very worried and was white knuckling the arm rest. I started thinking, if he is worried, maybe I should be too.
It wasn’t long before we were out of the storm although I am sure for the passengers it felt like an eternity. I completed my beverage service and we landed without incident.
After all of the passengers were gone, I talked to the pilots, telling them I wasn’t worried until I saw that captain white knuckled. Our captain chuckled and explained the Northwest captain was used to a big airplane where turbulence isn’t felt as much as in a small turbo-prop. I laughed and finished my day.
