Originally Posted by KathyWdrf
In the case of pilots, don't they have to handle "emergency" situations on a flight simulator on a regular basis? Of course, controlling a plane is different from trying to control a panicky crowd of passengers. As unpredictable as a damaged or malfunctioning aircraft is, it's still a machine. Maybe that's easier to deal with.
Perhaps that is related...I suppose that the typical personality that FA recruiters look for (emotive, nurturing, empathetic, people-people types) are more likely to become emotional - not because we're "flighty", but because we're likely feed off the emotions of our passengers. Though the pilots I fly with are very cognizant of their passengers, they tend to be more pragmatic than empathetic - and of course there is the wall between them and the rest of us...