The world’s longest-serving flight attendant has died from most cancers on the age of 88.
In a assertion on X, previously Twitter, American Airways stated: “We mourn the passing of Bette Nash, who spent practically seven many years warmly caring for our prospects within the air.”
“She began in 1957 and held the Guinness World File for longest-serving flight attendant. Bette impressed generations of flight attendants. Fly excessive, Bette,” the submit continues.
Nash by no means formally retired from her function with American Airways. She died in hospice after a current breast most cancers prognosis.
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Nash received her first job as a flight attendant with Japanese Airways — which later grew to become American Airways — in 1957, when Dwight D. Eisenhower was within the White Home.
“You needed to be a sure top, you needed to be a sure weight. It was once horrible. You placed on just a few kilos and also you needed to maintain weighing your self, after which if you happen to stayed that approach, they’d take you off the payroll,” Nash beforehand informed ABC affiliate WJLA in regards to the early days of her profession.
She informed ABC Information in 2022 {that a} ticket for a flight between New York and Washington, DC, price simply $12 on the time, including that passengers may even buy life insurance coverage from a merchandising machine earlier than boarding their aircraft.
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Over the course of her profession, Nash noticed large modifications to the aviation business, together with the consequences of deregulation, the laptop revolution, and the heightened safety measures that got here into impact following the September 11 terrorist assaults in 2001.
She additionally noticed flying change into more and more accessible following a increase in industrial air journey within the Nineteen Fifties.
By 1955, extra individuals within the US traveled by air than by prepare, and by 1957, airplanes had additionally changed ocean liners as the popular technique of crossing the Atlantic, in response to the Nationwide Air and House Museum.
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Simply as Nash was beginning out, jet passenger service additionally started within the US with the arrival of the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 airliners.
“The jet engine revolutionized air journey. Highly effective and sturdy, jets enabled plane producers to construct greater, quicker, and extra productive airliners,” the Nationwide Air and House Museum says on its web site, including that nearly half of all Individuals had flown by 1972.
In an X assertion, the Affiliation of Skilled Flight Attendants stated Nash “touched many along with her heat, dedication, and repair.”
“RIP, Bette. You will not be forgotten,” it added.
