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BIT UNF-AIR?

Airline cabin crew reveal the surprising reasons they can be fired – and you probably do this all the time

GETTING a cabin crew job seems pretty glamorous - but it definitely has its cons.

One flight attendant has revealed exactly what you’d have to do to get fired from your job – and the rules seem very strict.

 Keeping to the uniform rules is a very big deal when you're a flight attendant
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Keeping to the uniform rules is a very big deal when you're a flight attendantCredit: Getty - Contributor

Flight attendant Heather Poole told that it is far easier to be struck off than it your average office position.

She’s been a member of cabin crew for 15 years and wrote Cruising Altitude, a memoir about her time on the job.

She revealed that one of the top ways is to disrespect the uniform rules.

She said: “I know one new hire who lost her job for wearing her uniform sweater tied around her waist.”

 Flying while ill is the ultimate no-no as a flight attendant
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Flying while ill is the ultimate no-no as a flight attendantCredit: Getty - Contributor

But the number one way to lose your job as a flight attendant? Working while sick.

Pretty shocking considering most of us will force ourselves have dragged ourselves into the office when we’re feeling under the weather.

Heather said: “The most surprising violation is flying while ill - if we call in sick, we aren’t allowed to fly, even as a passenger on another airline.

“It’s grounds for immediate dismissal.”

While surprising, it's good news for passengers as planes are a prime spot for the spreading of infection.

Recent research has shown that it's the cabin crew who are often making people unwell on board flights - as opposed to the other passengers - as they move around the plane and come into contact with everyone on board.

Flight attendant is filmed taking bites out of in-flight meals

Vicki Stover Hertzberg of Emory University in Atlanta advises: "Flight attendants are less likely to fly when they're ill and, if they do, are more likely to take a cough drop to contain how they expel things because they know the risk.

"Get in [a] window seat and don't move.

A window seat is furthest away from the aisle, so passengers will come into contact with fewer ill people - making it the best place to sit if you want to avoid getting sick.

Last year we told about a family on a Jet2 flight who were forced to sit next to a pool of sick for hours after staff simply covered it with paper tissues.