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CUPE’s national officers commended five CUPE flight attendants at CanJet for their work during the hostage-taking in Montego Bay, Jamaica, on April 19 and 20, 2009.

Five flight attendants were among the eight crew members and 159 passengers held captive by a lone gunman at Sangster International Airport.

Passengers on the flight heaped praise on the flight crew for calming the gunman down and convincing him to let the passengers off the plane.

“Your professionalism and courage have made a difference and may have saved lives, as everyone, crew and passengers, escaped uninjured,” Moist and Généreux said in a letter to the CUPE members who crewed the flight.

“This episode illustrates clearly how important well-trained and dedicated flight attendants are for the safety of Canadian passengers,” they said.

“CUPE members across Canada, including the 8,500 flight attendants in CUPE’s Airline Division, are proud of their CanJet colleagues’ outstanding, heroic work.”