BLOOD AND SWEAT IN THE AIR (mal)

1. “Sir, on behalf of the flight service crew, we have decided that if this is not solved by 5pm
today, all our members will not fly from 8pm tonight”, warned Siti Amirah, the vice
president of the steward/stewardess club.
2. “This issue has been in the air for the last 4 days and management need to solve this fast
as our flight schedule can be affected, for if there are not enough crew numbers per
flight, we cannot let them fly”, said Raju, the manager for flight schedule.

[Raju was also the manager/in-charge of an important event 6 days ago when the new
corporate colour was introduced. The blue corporate colour was changed to red and the
company spent quite a bit even to change the upholstery of all the seats in every plane. The
new airbuses are already in the new colour.]

Amir, Yakob and Lim A.L. sat in anxiety after entertaining the two representatives from the
respective groups of employee in the early morning of 25 th January 2010. They had a 1-hour
discussion with the two, right from 8.15 am, the moment the three were present in the
“special meeting room” next to Amir’s office, who was the Vice President of logistic.

“Why this ultimatum? How come this came to me only last night when all of you knew about
this 2 days ago (moving his body posture and referring to Yakob and Lim)? You better tell me
all the facts and information about the issue of the case”, blurted Amir when the two reps
left the room.

“Four days ago, two stewardess, Ms. Tan and Ms. Tina reported, on landing, that they
suffered severe redness on the cheeks during the flight and had gone to see the resident
doctor at the terminal to get some cream. The doctor prescribed some ointment and gave
them a day off and expected some report on the development of the redness by them the
next day. But according to the doc., none was received. The doctor’s memo which I have in
my hand said that one report of such incident was recorded 4 days ago and four the next
day. Tan and Tina was the third. That was from the clinic. But the stewardess club recorded
12 such complaints and Lim has all the details,” explained Yakob.

“Yes Amir I have a copy of all the 12 incidents, and they are being reproduced by your
Secretary and should be in anytime. Let me read the cream of all the reports individually:
1. “We do the normal take-off preparation procedure. After the safety demonstration,
we sat down and on reaching cruising height, we started serving. After serving the hot
meal, I realised that my arms had a few red dots and wiped them off with some tissue. I
went to the toilet and wow the whole of my left cheek had the red spots too. I shrieked
and my colleagues came running in thinking that there was an insect or what as that is
what I am scared of. They laughed when they saw my spotted cheek and ask many
questions on what I ate, what cosmetics that I use and many more. Luckily the spots
disappeared after cleaning them with water”.
2. “I told the story to my husband and he will not allow me to fly” was another report.

1
 3. “..........we need to check on the cosmetics that we are using whether they have gone
beyond the expiry date or are the expiry date genuine....”
4. “......better still we should have a new supplier to solve the problem? ...”
5. “.......I experienced the same, but not only on the cheeks but also the neck as well. But
not on my hand......., but why only on me and not on the other steward who were on the
same flight?....”
6. “.......it is some kind of absurd. On our way to Kota Kinabalu through Kuching, Miri,
Bintulu and finally KK, no such incidents happened. But on our direct flight back to KL,
the red spots appeared. Must be the food that we took on board from KK.......”
7. “...I experience the same.............but none of the passengers reported anything
similar....”
8. “......hei, our flight went to Langkawi and then to Phuket and straight on to Bangkok.
The spots appeared on the Phuket-Bangkok and Bangkok-KL routes only. Again I think it
is the food that we took on board in Phuket and Bangkok.........”
9. “.....at least my husband who is a medical doctor provided some relief, when I told him
what I had experienced. He confirmed that it is not blood! And when he checked the
whole body nothing was detected on my body, nor my legs. He kept the tissues that I
used for wiping to confirm other things. I do not know what, but I am due to fly in
32hours time and he will not allow me to fly unless the airline solve the blood in the
sweat or whatever.........”
10. “.........why only this time. I have flown so many times in the last 8 years, why
today??........”
11. “.......I want to suggest that we check on the food supplier regularly.......”
12. “........we should check on everything? We are going to probe in the dark not knowing
what and our flight schedule is very tight. I am not going to fly if this is not solved? I was
the first to report and yesterday was my second time. Enough is enough.......”

After finishing the quick review, Amir looked at the copy of the complaints (now each got a
copy) and exclaimed, “why only the last 4 days? There were no similar reports before this?
Why?” looking at Lim.

“… as Malaysians we take time to realise the seriousness. Some might experience it but
thought that it was a rare incident and since the red disappeared on landing everything was
forgotten” interjected Lim.

“..and I noted that of all flights that landed, no such reports came from the Penang, Pekan,
Johor Bahru, Singapore”.

“....Aah Kob......they sometimes do not report everything....” interjected Amir again.

“Anyway let us brainstorm and decide on something significant now and it better be settled
before the end of the lunch break today”, Amir interjected in a more serious mood.
[END OF THE SHORT CASE]