Broken Wings: A Flight Attendant's Journey

by H. Nattanya Andersen

Nattanya Andersen's cherished career as a flight-attendant for one of the world's largest airlines careened to a halt, when a jet-engine-explosion five feet away from her at 6000 feet altitude shortly after take-off left her with post-traumatic-stress-disorder (PTSD). The mental health professions' apparent lack of knowledge concerning the treatment of PTSD-sufferers and Nattanya's desire to help herself lead her to search for empirical studies on PTSD and other health-issues and dangers facing air-crew--and by extension their passengers--on a daily basis. In Broken Wings Nattanya documents the symptoms and repercussions of PTSD and portrays the treatment an injured-at-work employee, in particular if ill with PTSD, can expect to receive from the employer, the Workers' Compensation Board, and the Union. Interwoven with her struggle against the system are chapters about air-rage, air-quantity and quality in aircraft-cabins; airplanes as illness-incubators; cosmic-radiation-exposure; turbulence; air-traffic-control; pilot-training; flight-phobia and anxiety, and air-crew-duty-times, all backed up by data from dozens of scientific studies. Nattanya also gives us insight into the air-crew-lifestyle, the role of flight-attendants, and passengers' on-board behavior. But Broken Wings is not just about the aviation-industry, and it is not just dry facts and figures. It is a story about fear, betrayal and the phoenix-like rebirth of a soul from the moment of the accident to the time when Nattanya emerges as a complete - albeit scarred - person from a situation which came close to breaking her. It is an utterly compelling story, even for readers who have no interest in the airline-industry. In light of the September 11, 2001 events and the regularly occurring aircraft-crashes and incidents worldwide leaving uncounted numbers of passengers and crew with PTSD, "Broken Wings" indeed makes timely and gripping reading.

324 pages, Paperback

First published April 16, 1999

About the author

When seeing her first stewardess at age 5, Nattanya knew she would follow in her footsteps. Too young to fly at age 17, she instead began to sail as stewardess on a Danish freighter. Old enough to fly a couple of years later, she had married instead and worked as ground-stewardess for Lufthansa German Airlines at Copenhagen’s Kastrup airport. A few years later, when children had failed to announce their arrival, Nattanya fulfilled her childhood dream by beginning to fly for a large North American air carrier, in her time off sailing the seven seas with another merchant mariner husband. A “I never thought I’ll be a ballerina” uttered by a trucker in the local Workers’ Compensation Board’s rehabilitation swimming pool while exercising side-by-side led to another matrimony and trucking throughout North America. That took its toll, however, and through severe illness Nattanya learnt children had never been in her cards. The marriage failed. But, flying still her greatest joy and the world still her oyster, she enrolled in university as an earthly pursuit, which resulted in a Bachelor of Arts degree.

And then everything in her charmed life came to an abrupt halt with an engine explosion 5 feet away from her minutes after takeoff, the aircraft dropping like a stone. Numerous previous near misses had taught her that there was no way out of this one. We were goners. But fate dictated otherwise. Diagnosed with PTSD a couple of weeks later, a decade of deceit of such magnitude followed that she only understood it fully when writing her second book, The Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Fallacy: A Mental Health Industry Bonanza Of Profit And Human Destruction.

Despite it all, Nattanya rehabilitated herself. But when her psychiatrist declared her fit for a return to in-flight duty, all hell broke loose. While her lawyer conducted the battle for her livelihood she wrote Broken Wings: A Flight Attendant’s Journey (into PTSD). Never intending to write another book, an encounter with 26 genuine U.S. military PTSD experiencers including victims of rape during a trans-Atlantic cruise forced her to ask herself: ”How will you feel on your deathbed, if you do not write about how you survived 10 years of pure hell relatively unscathed?” Fallacy is the answer. Living with her dogs in her ocean-side home on Vancouver Island, she presently works on Fallacy III.

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is the story of author Tanya Andersen and her battle with the airline she worked for after experiencing PTSD resulting from an engine explosion she experienced during a flight while working as a flight attendant. The book is part the telling of her story and her fight to get PTSD recognized as something that people in her industry experienced as well as exposing some of the other hazards of air travel - both for passengers and those who work in the industry. As Andersen fights through the red tape of both the airline industry and the mental health industry towards her goal of going back to work, she shares all of the hurdles she faced.

A couple of things about this book before you read it. First, since I won this in a Goodreads giveaway and it was an e-book, I really didn't pay attention to when it was written. As I got into the book, I realized that the incident that triggered Andersen's PTSD happened in the late 1980s. The book itself came out in 1999. So, many of the things she talks about regarding the airline industry are quite old and likely out of date. Second, this is probably not a book you want to read on a flight (or if you are getting ready to get on a plane). Eye opening for sure, but probably not super comforting if you are someone that already isn't super comfortable with flying.

In general, I found the book to be a bit too detailed. By the end of the book, I just wanted to get to the end and find out what happened in Andersen's case. After covering a lot of detail about everything she went through, the ending itself seemed very rushed.

I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Skyqueen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow...can I EVER relate to THIS one!!! She is right on the money as to what happens up in the air. Even to the personality of what makes a flight crew and the reason we would do it all again....KNOWING what we are exposed to. And make no mistake---it is NOT necessarily an EASY job and certainly not safe. From the regulations, or NO regulations, to the company's themselves. But as she says: We would do it all again. Read it for an absolute insider's story. Especially before you apply to be that Fly Girl. Kudos to her for facing and enduring the system.

[Aisteach (Lauren) · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF 58%

This is literally the first book I have ever not finished. I just couldn't listen to her whine about the same thing over and over again all while no advocating for herself and being kinda racist and homophobic.

Hoping this doesn't send me into a major reading slump.

I may return to it in the future, but it's unlikely.

Won from a good reads giveaway - sorry....

[Huguette Larochelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

wow , after reading this you don,t want to take a plane.
it bad for you ,
but Miss Andersen battle are insane , why not go and get another place to work after this .
i find this book in yard sale , i don,t think it for the public read