WHAT WAS THE HARDEST PART OF THE JOB?

With propeller planes, when it was turbulent it was tough. You had to hang on. People were belted in, but it wasn’t as strict as nowadays. My first flight was with a group of Korean War veterans – Seattle to Denver, over the Rockies. Everyone got sick. Everyone. Including the sergeant. I was helping as best I could. I thought: “This is everything I trained for, in one flight.

And it’s my first flight.” director: “I hope they don’t push the windows out.” I took a few pictures, which I never dreamt would be important to anybody 50 years later.

‘The Beatles had already been to New York. There had been signs of a riot, so we planned ahead’

CAREER HIGHS LAX airport in 1965, main; Ethel Pattison today, left, and as a stewardess in 1951, below left; the Beatles at LAX in 1964