Cabin crew leader ensures health, safety

Late last month, Lyu Han, a chief flight attendant with Air China and a director of the company's cabin service department, worked on the last return flight from Beijing to New York.

The flight took place just days before the airline suspended services to the Big Apple, one of the places hardest hit by the novel coronavirus outbreak in the United States.

On March 29, the Civil Aviation Administration of China ordered domestic airlines to cut their international routes to one per country and make just one flight a week.

In response, Air China decided to maintain its Beijing-Los Angeles route.

Before Lyu boarded the plane for New York, she had a 90-minute video conference with 17 other cabin crew members in which she shared epidemic prevention and control techniques for the flight.

"Fear was the last thing on my mind. All I could think about at the time was packing my bag," said the 39-year-old, who in February made herself available for any flight assignment.

Four hours before takeoff, her father drove her to the airport, urging her to take care.

The airline prepared head-to-toe protective gear for every crew member, including masks, gowns and gloves, to shield them from infection. At 1 pm on March 27, the 365-seat Boeing 747-8 left Beijing Capital International Airport with just three passengers on board.

"That was the fewest number of passengers I have come across in my 17 years of flying," Lyu said. "Before the pandemic, Air China had the largest number of flights on the China-US route, with three packed flights between Beijing and New York every day."

After arriving in New York, Lyu and her colleagues went straight to the company's base in Long Beach, Nassau county, where she went to bed without eating. She woke at 5 am and ate her first and last meal before returning to Beijing.

All the crew members arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport three hours before the scheduled departure to help each other put on layers of protective gear and prepare preventive measures. Lyu found her job more challenging when wearing the heavy protection.

"We took the passengers' temperatures three times and helped them fill in the health declaration forms so we could report to Tianjin Airport in a timely manner if there was a problem," she said.

Under CAAC orders, all international Beijing-bound flights must first land in one of 12 designated cities, including Shanghai and Tianjin, where all passengers disembark and are tested for the coronavirus. Those cleared are then allowed to board the aircraft again for the flight to the capital.

To avoid having to use the washroom, Lyu didn't eat anything during the 14-hour flight to Tianjin. After a further three hours of health and quarantine inspections, she made it back to Beijing.

When she took off her protective gear, her clothes were soaked.

"When I stepped on the scales I thought they were broken as I'd lost 2.5 kilograms in three days," she said. "But it was worth it to bring our compatriots home safe and sound."

Lyu and her colleagues are about to complete their 14-day post-flight quarantine.

She has kept a close eye on the health of the passengers on the flight, and said she is delighted that there have been no confirmed cases of coronavirus infection among them.