October 08, 2021
A third of a century ago, when Artemis Bayandor fled Iran with her family as a young girl, she remembers being welcomed aboard a flight to the United States by smiling flight attendants. Now, she has had the chance to be on the other side of the welcoming.
Bayandor is now with United Airlines’ corporate safety department after spending years in the sky as a flight attendant. But August brought an opportunity to get her back in the galley.
“There was like an all-call for anyone who speaks Farsi, Dari, or Pashto, so I was like, ‘Oh my God, I have to do this!’” she told CBS News in Chicago.
Bayandor Iranian’s heritage made her the perfect candidate to serve as an interpreter on two of United’s more than 60 flights dedicated to transporting thousands of Afghans from the US military bases to which they had been flown in the mass evacuation from Kabul.
She said her initial welcome was saying, “Welcome aboard, come on in!” in Farsi.
On board, she bonded most with mothers, and in one woman’s story, Bayandor’s life came full-circle.
“She told me there was this absolute fear and want and need to protect her two daughters and get them out of the country as soon as possible, and that really resonated with me,” she said, “because 33 years ago, my mother did exactly the same thing.”
In 1988, Bayandor’s mother and her two daughters boarded a plane to leave war-torn Iran and start a new life. Bayandor remembers stepping on board, and seeing the cabin crew. “They were so kind and so bright, and it was different from how we saw women in Iran,” she said.
And so, Bayandor helped those sitting where she sat.
“They know that people like us are here to help them, and I’m forever grateful for that,” she said, “because that’s the feeling I got when I was a little girl.”