Duct Tape to an airplane can be compared to the importance of white on rice, as a Flight Attendant my recommendation is to not, “leave home without it”.

In the old days, duct tape could have been the reason delays were shorter. Tray table repairs, compartment repairs,  galley repairs, you name it, and a roll of duct tape would save the day.

In today’s environment almost all challenges to the airplane call for the mechanics to board the airplane.

If you are parked in one of your base cities, there can be a long wait for the mechanics to arrive. Once the mechanics arrive they go through their set of procedures that either have them fixing the problem or delaying the fix until later. If you are not in a base city, God Bless you. I have grown grey hair waiting for another airline mechanic to show.

Delaying is the key word, because that is what your passengers and crew are now experiencing.

In Flight Attendant School we learn how one delay can mess up a bunch of flights. If your aircraft is traveling from Phoenix to Chicago, and you suffer a thirty-five minute delay, the captain may have the chance to make that up. However, if you have a long delay, the aircraft that you are on will carry that delay throughout the day. This will make many flights late, and cause misconnects to other cities.

The main pain it causes is to the passengers, potentially they may not get where they were supposed to, on time or at all. This phenomenon causes us much pain.

Having duct tape is like having Ibuprofen. It may not heal the big problem, but it sure easies the pain for the small aches and pains.

If you want to have a long Flight Attendant Career, never try to fix things yourself. That style of management went out a long time ago.

As in everything we do, inform the Captain that you are packing duct tape. You will be surprised on how many times he smiles and fixes the challenge.

This process is called “Monkey Back Management”. You took the monkey off of your back, and gave it to the captain.

Within the next six minutes you may be leaving the gate, on time, with just a little less tape.

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