New Flight Attendants Share Monticello Connection

Last week on Thursday, Nov. 20, my nephew, Nathan Mahan, graduated from Delta Airlines as a flight attendant. The class is a seven-week course and it as close to “boot camp” that I can imagine, 10+ hour days. He called me the second day he was at school and told me there was someone from Monticello in his class, Amy Greer Key.

Amy is the daughter of Bubba Greer and Beth Greer. Amy graduated from Jasper County High School. They were both so surprised that they had connections to our “small town” America and for several years, we were neighbors (two doors down from one another)! I was surprised, too, and I told Nathan, it really is a “small world” out there.

At the graduation ceremony, all the families and their friends were gathered in the lobby of the Delta Museum and Bubba Greer came up to me and said, “Judy, what in the world? This big place and you are the first person I see!”

We exchanged hugs and congratulated each other on Amy and Nathan’s accomplishment. With everyone gathered, you could feel the excitement and pride in the air. As you may know, Bubba Greer and my aunt Dee Dee Goodman worked together for years at the ASCS office and Beth was our librarian for 20+ years.

My sister, Cindy, and her husband, Wayne, met at their Delta Flight Attendant school in 1976 and were married four years later. They have worked for the airlines as flight attendants for 38 years and fly as the crew leader on their trips. Delta realized this as well. Parents who were senior flight attendants attending their son’s graduation as a flight attendant.

In fact, they are one of the first families in the company to hold this status since Delta lifted their nepotism rule several years ago. Delta is putting together a feature article about the family. From a sister, sister-in-law, and aunt’s point of view, that is exciting to me!

During the ceremony, Delta expressed the Mahan family as role models to their company and they were true examples of the “Delta Difference” in the airline industry. As far as seniority goes, Wayne’s number is 1048, Cindy’s is 1038 and Nathan is 20,300! Nathan will take his first solo trip as a Delta flight attendant on Thanksgiving Day.

Here are some brief facts I learned from the graduation ceremony and chatting with Delta employees in attendance at the graduation:

Brief History:

Began in 1929 – 85 years in the industry

The company started out crop dusting

Employs 80,000 people, 20,000 of those are flight attendants

In 2014, they had 165 million customers taking a journey somewhere in the world

Becoming a member of the Delta Flight Attendant Team:

In 2014, 124,000 people applied to be a flight attendant

11,000 were extended face-to-face interviews

2,000 were extended job offers

1,300 accepted the job and attended flight attendant school

Delta conducted 16 classes during 2014 averaging 215 per class broken down into sections

Nathan and Amy graduated from the last class conducted in 2014 – “P” Class

The student must maintain a 90+ across the board on all their tests (other airlines require an 80+)

They learned how to perform their job and some aspects included: safety, service, paramedic procedures, firefighter, counselor, how to open any possible door on any type of airplane, emergency procedures, evacuating an airplane from 90 – 250+ passengers, etc.

Less than two percent are successful enough to graduate. In Nathan’s section, it started out with 62 and 52 graduated.