KLM Royal Dutch Airlines stewardess holding an AR-10 as part of the KLM polar survival kit issued to crews flying over Arctic territories.
Stumbled onto this while looking for a different photo. Also here’s a glimpse at the rest of the kit.
LOADED FOR BEAR - With a Fairchild AR-10 rifle in hand and a polar suit draped over her pretty shoulders, KLM Dutch Airlines stewardess Johanna Van Duffelen is ready for the rigors of Arctic life. Miss Van Duffelen is posed among arctic survival kit gear carried aboard every KLM aircraft flying the polar route from Amsterdam to Tokyo. The kit consists of hundreds of itwms including sleeping bags, snowglasses, axes, snowsaws, knives, snares, fishing nets, and special rations. The rifle, designed and developed by Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporation’s Armalite Division, is part of KLM’s standard survival equipment. The weapon weighs less than seven pounds, fires 20 shots per clip, either semi- or fully-automatic, and utilizes the 7.62 standard NATO cartridge.
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A 1984 letter from KLM confirming existence of the rifles
Interesting it sounds like the person who wrote to KLM might have managed to find one of the rifles.
Thought this was Carrie Fisher in Empire at first
Same, may she rest in peace.
Don’t show this to RyanAir, or they’ll start forcing everyone at gun point to take their human cattle airplanes
Why 7.62? Seems like an awfully large caliber for a survival gun. Polar bears?
It was for polar bears. And for that purpose I can get behind 7.62.
What seems off to me is expecting a stewardess to operate a sub 7 lb 7.62 rifle in automatic, while being charged by the largest predator on land.
I suppose the alternative is expecting her to fight off a polar bear without the gun.
Don’t forget, she’s wearing mittens, so it’ll be awfully hard to actually pull the trigger
Also these jackets are extremely slippery. If not trained on this rilfe, you could (with these big mittens) accidentally lock yoursef in a feedback loop with the recoil or just loose the grip entirely.
Imagine using a fully automatic (there is also a semi automatic version) rifle against bears. Bit overkill ngl.
“Black fight back, brown get down, white good night.”
Polar bears are fucking dangerous man.
