Working on a private jet is the career pinnacle for many flight attendants. This may be for a private owner, for a business aviation operator, or for a company-owned private jet. Royal families, governments and presidents may have their own jets. Given the enormity of security and safety of the individuals and the cost of one of these expensive jets (around 65 million dollars), you’d think the selection process for the flight attendant would be quite rigorous. Surprisingly it isn’t always.

Service over safety?

Although many flight attendants within the industry do come from an airline background, some do not. Some companies, especially within Europe, place emphasis on five-star service. As such, they take candidates from hotels and restaurants instead. In this case, the flight attendant has no safety background or training. Some will not even have basic first-aid training.

So what would happen if there was an emergency onboard, such as a galley fire or a decompression? Or what if the aircraft owner or the VIP has a medical emergency? An untrained crew member would not know what to do, which is a scary thought. In these cases, the crew member will also not operate the door, which one of the pilots will do instead. What would happen if there was an emergency and a pilot was incapacitated?

Loophole

So, how is this possible? There is a loophole in the regulations (those of the FAA and EASA, as well as others) that…