Do you want to become a flight attendant/Steward? Or having another reason to know about flight attendant medical requirements? Job specifications may vary from company to company. But most airline companies appointed flight attendants by looking at similar skills and qualifications. If you have cleared initial assessments bravely for becoming flight attendants and want to know about the final hurdle. You have approached the right and correct website. The final hurdle for becoming a member of the aircrew is to undergo a physical examination.
There are various health departments and health specialist companies such as OHMP and AME in the UK, who conduct medical assessments and issue a medical report to members of the cabin crew. In this medical report, they confirmed about the applicant as they are unfit or fit for aircrew duties. Let’s find out more information related to your dream job.
What Are Basic Flight Attendant Medical Requirements?
In an emergency landing situation, the cabin crew needs to activate the evacuation slide quickly and evacuate passengers immediately. For that purpose, applicants must have good health for enduring the challenge of cabin crew duties. In order to tackle these problems, airlines required physical examinations of applicants. Let’s check out flight attendant medical requirements.
Eyesight
As you have to meet certain medical standards, the first and foremost requirement is corrected vision. 20/20 vision is quite good for any other jobs, but can’t be enough to qualify for a flight attendant position. As per everyday aviation, visual acuity for qualifying for this position is 20/40 (you may wear contact lenses or glasses for it). 20/40 known as a corrected vision for flight attendants, means you have to read the line correctly placed at 40 feet, which lines would be readable with normal vision at 20 feet. If you are going for an eyesight exam, you must wear the correct and appropriate lenses/glasses.
Blood Test
The second flight attendant medical requirement is a blood test, and the person must be able to stand for a long time. Maybe your airline company required another test for checking endurance ability and strength such as pulling and pushing heavy carts or placing items overhead. There are different diseases like anemia, hepatitis C, HIV, and infection that are found in the blood. In order to diagnose these diseases or injuries, airlines require blood tests.
Alcohol And Drug
In order to measure safety, not even flight attendants, the whole cabin crew are tested for alcohol and drugs. This pre-employment test requires no sleep on time-taken flights. Although taking drugs or drinking alcohol mitigates irregular sleep, not allowed for aircrew. Further, falling asleep during flight time may cause crash landing and serious accidents. Moreover, if you took drugs or alcohol yesterday and went for a flight attendant medical test. Probably got a medical report as unfit for the flight attendant position.
Ear Test
Descending and ascending (Landing and take-off) on the runway create changes in barometric pressure, which make flight attendants dizzier. For that purpose, the inner ear’s eustachian tubes of the candidate are examined by the physician to check for any abnormalities. If these tubes are reported unhealthy, candidates probably face dizziness and faintness in the air. Moreover, changes in pressure may also cause discomfort and other health problems such as sudden facial pain and headache that’s why physicians also examine candidates’ sinuses. if sinuses are unable to cope with changes in barometric pressure, the applicant reported unfit.
Height And Weight
For safety measurements, there are abundant parameters that flight attendants have to meet. Height and weight are also considered crucial parameters required for checking the eligibility of flight attendants. As I have analyzed different websites and reviewed travel academy training programs, there is no ideal weight and height for flight attendants. Every airline has its weight height chart. Frankly speaking, flight attendants must have enough height, which makes them able to touch the compartment of airplanes. Probably, the shortest possible height for a flight attendant is 4’11” and usually the tallest possible height is 6 feet.
Bear one thing in mind, more than 6 feet height makes you crouch while walking in an airplane. Further, crouching in the plane is unsafe and even more dangerous in emergencies. Additionally, a tall-heightened flight attendant and an obese person are unable to sit properly on the jump seat. Similarly, airlines don’t have maximum weight or minimum weight, they require weight directly proportional to their sort of body.
Physical Strength
Suppose you have 20/40 visual acuity (with glasses), standard weight proportional to the height, have no drinking habits, and normal eustachian tubes but didn’t have required physical strength. All these above-mentioned medical requirements are of no use. The only medical requirement for an emergency is enough physical strength such as operating and lifting emergency exit doors, taking down and evacuating passengers, and other unusual situations.
Even in normal scenarios, flight attendants need to stand on their feet for a long time, probably taking heavy luggage overhead for putting it in compartments. Applicants must have to be flexible in awkward and tight spaces for helping passengers. Further obvious medical requirements are, that applicants can’t be deaf, blind, and have weak eyesight. Moreover, physical requirements may also include no visible tattoos and non-visible piercings. Additionally, I found some more medical tests such as ECG for checking your heart rate and its condition, urine test for diagnosing diseases, reach test for accessing your endurance in emergencies, and immunisation test for checking whether you have tetanus, yellow fever, or not. In order to pass the final medical round, the above-mentioned flight attendant medical requirements are needed to be fulfilled correctly and appropriately. If being a flight attendant is your dream job, you must focus and work on your health.
Conclusion
What are flight attendant medical requirements? As I have mentioned, medical requirements vary from airline to airline for cabin crew. The most common and basic medical requirements are sharp visual acuity, good hearing capacity, enough physical strength with a sharp mind, weight proportional to your height, and disease-free blood. Further, medical requirements may be small exercises that you have to perform in an emergency (created for a test).
