Check flight attendant
A crew member who conducts formal line checks on operating crew, observing a live flight and grading procedures and standards.
Definition
A check flight attendant is a designated senior crew member or training-department staffer who performs line checks: riding a normal flight to observe and grade the crew against the operations manual. Checks are scheduled — new crew after familiarisation, everyone periodically — and unannounced spot checks are also common. The checker files a written report that goes on your record and, in the worst case, can ground you for retraining.
What it means for you
A line check is the closest the job gets to an exam on the aircraft, and it is passed by doing the boring things visibly: the cross-check said aloud, the cabin secure done by the book, the announcement in full. Airlines also treat a checker qualification as a stepping stone, so a strong check record is what gets you noticed for trainer and purser roles.
In practice
A Lufthansa crew learn at the Frankfurt briefing that a checker is joining a Munich rotation, and the whole crew fly the four sectors exactly as the manual describes, because the report names individuals.
Related terms
4 terms- Line trainerRoles & ranksAn experienced crew member who trains and assesses new crew on live flights during their first supervised sectors.
- Cabin crew instructorRoles & ranksA ground-based trainer who delivers initial and recurrent safety, service and CRM courses at the airline's training centre.
- Cross-checkSafety & trainingA colleague verifying that the door opposite yours is armed or disarmed as commanded — the double-check that prevents slide deployments.
- Operations manualRegulationThe regulator-approved manual every procedure on your flight comes from — crew work from its safety volumes and are checked against it.