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- Alaska Airlines flight attendant meets flamingos who hatched from eggs she helped save midflight
Airlines (Commonwealth Union)_An Alaska Airlines flight attendant is being commended for her quick thinking to save what would have been a devastating loss of precious cargo.
A zoo official’s incubator for six rare Chilean flamingo eggs stopped working during a flight from Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport last August. The zoo official who was a passenger, was transporting six rare Chilean flamingo eggs from Zoo Atlanta to Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle when the eggs’ incubator that was keeping the rare Chilean flamingo eggs warm and the flaminglets inside alive, stopped working midflight.
American Airlines said Monday that the airline worker named Amber was working aboard an August flight from Atlanta to Seattle when a passenger requested help.
Amber, one of the crewmembers onboard, said a passenger rang the call button and asked if she would help keep some eggs warm and she was glad to help.
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The official rang the flight attendant call button and requested for assistance to keep the eggs warm. That was when Amber came in to save the day.
After quickly thinking of a solution, Amber, who has worked as a flight attendant for 10 years, went to the galley, and quickly grabbed some rubber gloves while other passengers seated nearby offered their coats, scarves and other items of clothing to provide extra warmth. She filled the gloves with warm water to incubate the eggs and returned them to the zoo official, who placed them around the eggs to form an insulated nest. Fellow crewmembers also helped by checking in with the zoo official throughout the flight and replacing the gloves with warm water as the water cooled.
The crewmember developed a makeshift incubator for the rare flamingo eggs during cross-country flight.
Amber along with her fellow crew members continuously checked on the eggs and routinely replaced the gloves as the water inside them cooled during the flight.
Thanks to the quick thinking and attentiveness of the flight attendant, all the eggs survived and hatched healthy and fluffy gray flaminglets.
Amber got a surprise call months later, from the Woodland Park Zoo inviting her to meet the baby birds she helped save.
She said she was honored and so happy that the chicks had hatched, all six of them!
But that was just the beginning of the surprise. Zoo officials named one of the babies after Sunny, Amber’s baby granddaughter, as a way to honor their life-saving flight attendant.
Amber and little Sunny were given an exclusive tour of the Seattle zoo complete with a “meet and greet” of the six fuzzy flamingo chicks who were named Sunny, Amaya, Rosales, Gonzo, Bernardo and Magdalena, in a vote by the zoo’s social media followers.
The flight attendant met six rare baby flamingos who hatched from eggs she helped save in an unusual request midflight — including the chick named after the hero attendant’s granddaughter.
“Having baby Sunny meet flamingo Sunny was just wonderful,” Amber said. “I am excited to see them both grow up.”
The feathered siblings, who will acquire their signature pink color with age, were the first hatchlings of the species at the zoo since 2016. The new additions bring the zoo’s flock up to 49.
Gigi Allianic, from Woodland Park Zoo said “We are forever grateful for the heroic measures Amber took to help keep our precious flamingo eggs warm and viable. This means the world to our zoo family. They would have been lost if you hadn’t gone above and beyond for us.”
