Evolution of cabin crew training in commercial aviation

Cabin Crew Training Programs

Aviation has changed in massive ways in the last few decades. When commercial flying first debuted to the public, the pilot was considered "king" of the aircraft and his decisions were never questioned and it was always assumed that he knew exactly what he was doing; there was seldom any input given from others (Baron). "Part of this thinking had its genesis from the military. At one time the military was the biggest producer of pilots, and along with military training came a good dose of machismo, ego, and autocratic decision-making processes (many military fighters were single pilot aircraft and therefore lacked the redundancy of, and decision inputs from, another crewmember)" (Baron).

One of the major issues with this arena of thinking was that it manifested into a ton of errors that turned out to be tragedies. For example, in 1978, United 171 ran out of gas and no one noticed until it was too late to do anything about it. In 1982 Air Florida 90 was not properly deiced and the cabin crew was not trained properly; thus it crashed shortly after takeoff (Baron). These tragedies demonstrated several aspects to the world of aviation; first, it was important to have a strong, consistent and well-trained team within the aircraft, rather than a single person. For example, when the commercial airline industry first debuted, stewardesses were simply glamorous looking young women who helped to contribute to the charm of flying (Baron). it's important to recall that in the early days of commercial aviation, flying was generally reserved for the well to do, and there were even dress codes to be enforced during flights (Barons). However, the role of flight attendants has changed dramatically: "Today's flight attendants are highly trained, highly skilled, and center on safety as the core of their job function. and, just like the pilots, many have been trained in crew resource management principles. However, some recent findings have uncovered some disturbing facts about the division of responsibilities and safety issues between the cockpit (pilots) and the cabin crew (flight attendants). The underlying goal for both the pilots and flight attendants is the safe and efficient completion of a flight" (Baron).

However, before any of those goals can be achieved for the airplane or for the team aboard the airplane, there has to be a strong commitment to ensuring these individuals get the best, most thorough and most proper training available. One of the major issues with proper training of the cabin crew is that the majority of training programs boast a profound and marked lack in high fidelity simulation. Other programs have high tech equipment specifically for training purposes that are not being utilized to their fullest potential.

Purpose and Rationale

It's important to bear in mind that back in the "good old days" (the 1940s) pilots didn't learn to fly on aircraft simulators; instead, they used actual airplanes (Weiner & Nagel, 1988). This practice was in place because there simply were no simulators. Pilots learning on actual planes became safer, better trained more experienced pilots. While it's true that this form of training was more dangerous to the pilots, the instructors and the machinery, it still created better pilots. But at what price? Pilots were given some lectures on the ground and then sent up on airplanes for solo missions; however this trial and error technique caused frequent damage to machinery as well as killed many of the trainees (Weiner & Nagel, 1988). Training on an actual plane vs. training on a simulator is like the difference between learning to drive on an actual car or using a realistic video game; the more prepared drivers are obviously the ones who use vehicles.

However, this era is not the 1940s; we are firmly in the 21st century with some of the most advanced technology that mankind has ever imagined at our disposal. it's practically criminal that the airlines are not more fastidiously harnessing this technology for the benefit of their pilots with more aggression. In fact, the FAA has long established the importance of realism of simulators. "There has been much debate over the years regarding the need for flight simulator motion for airline-pilot training and evaluation. From the intuitive perspective there is the dictum, 'The airplane moves, so the simulator must move' -- but intuition alone is not enough to make a valid case for requiring elaborate -- and costly -- motion systems for training and evaluation of airline pilots. The ultimate goal of training and checking -- to produce and maintain highly-skilled pilots capable of ensuring a superior level of safety in both normal and abnormal flight operations -- cannot be met without adequate resources available to all airlines world-wide" (Burki-Cohen et al., 2011). Thus, the current inadequacy of training and failure to engage with current resources is tremendous problematic as airline cabin crews need to be trained not only in the safe and proper handling of the aircraft, but they have to be prepared for a variety of emergency situations, such as emergency evacuations, which are both stressful and life-threatening.

Interest and Importance

"Synthetic training is highly effective in other sectors of aviation, particularly in the maintenance engineering training and cabin crew training. Flight simulation reduces significantly the cost of flight crew training. Training in a flight simulator can be more effective than airborne training" (Royal Aero Society, 2009). This last statement by the Royal Aero society reflects the sheer power of high tech simulation for cabin crew members, and all team members who work aboard the aircraft. Advanced simulation can simply create a range of scenarios in flight that a team member might not encounter right away once they begin work. There's a greater variety of cues and situations to explore to use for the sake of challenging crew members and for the sake of research discovery. Realistic episodes of simulation stimulate research and advancement of aircraft.

However, realistic, high-tech simulation episodes also hold another form of importance: they allow crew members to enact and become prepared for emergency scenarios. This is absolutely vital and a truly priceless aspect of training. "Many studies (e.g. NTSB/SIR/92/02) have shown that in emergency evacuations the sudden stress on cabin attendants has resulted in significant performance losses, e.g. An inability to open doors which were in fact fully serviceable" (Estegassy). This is a classic example of poor emergency training for cabin crew members as it demonstrates a lack of mental preparation and of confidence: "…stress results from the instinctive and unconscious comparison between the perceived requirements of the situation and the internal image of one's competencies. Poor training can exacerbate a dangerous situation: If training is inadequate, one's confidence to handle the situation is weak, therefore the perceived stress is higher, and performance declines.

If training is of a good standard however, confidence in one's competencies can ameliorate the stress and performance can prove equal to the task" (Estegassy). However, the bulk of cabin crew training programs don't use simulated processes that are strongly enough like the real thing or properly make use of their high tech equipment for the benefit of intensively and comprehensively training their staff members.

The training needs to realistic, complete and well-planned so that crew members are not only prepared for a range of situations, but so that they feel well-prepared to handle a range of situations. "Cabin attendant training for emergency evacuations should meet a set standard: cabin attendants should be able to quickly assess the situation and ensure passengers' evacuation with the best possible result so as to enhance the chances of passengers' survival" (Estegassy). This means that training programs through high fidelity simulation need to be able to provide those skills to crew members.

The best form of aircraft cabin simulators are those which create situations of virtual simulation: real people employing simulated equipment (Sokolowski & Banks, 2012). "The best known examples of virtual simulation are the flight simulators used by airlines and the military for pilot training. Here real pilots train on cockpits mocked up to represent a specific type of aircraft cabin. Computers provide inputs to the flight instruments to replicate aircraft response as the pilot manipulates the controls" (Sokolowski & Banks, 2012).

Recommendations

When it comes to cabin crew members, the bulk of their importance with safety revolves around being prepared for a range of emergency scenarios. This is particularly true for large aircraft such as ones which have two levels and which carry masses of passengers long distances over travel times of 17 hours and more (Liu, 2010). This is a significant point to focus upon. The cabin crew members are essentially the people who are in charge of keeping sometimes hundreds of passengers safe, calm and relaxed for hours upon hours. Passengers can get restless, some can get panicky; panic can spread and this feeling can multiply and incite more widespread panic.

Cabin crew members thus need to be able to not just keep passengers calm, but to have thorough preparation for a variety of scenarios. "These days, the air travel is now accessible to the public, including all age groups and all social levels. In this case, in terms of medical aspects, it is necessary for the crew members to have first aid skills, basic medical training is becoming essential for them. These kinds of skills are required of both short haul crew members and long haul cabin crews. In regards to the area of airplane emergencies, such as crash landings, ditching, aborted takeoffs, decompressions and fire, and so on, the cabin crew members' training, experience and ability tends to be more crucial for the survival of the heaps of passengers" (Liu, 2010). Proper flight simulation training is key; though the field of aviation would be behooved to copy tactics that the medical community uses to proper train their doctors. In the field of medicine virtual training is not just achieved via realistic technology, though that is a definitive aspect of it. Rather, the medical community relies on the participation of real people to play patients so that doctors get medical experience, training in making diagnostics, and work on their bedside manner. "Given that the best way to replicate a human being is with a human being, many aspects of the real clinical world can be evoked using specially trained actors to portray patients with particular health conditions or concerns. Because of their special training they are referred to as 'Standardized Patients' (SP). They are able to give consistent and pre-defined accounts of their conditions and to answer the full spectrum of questions about themselves" (Stanford.edu, 2012). There's absolutely no reason why such a phenomenon could not exist as a part of flight simulation training. Instead of just have high-tech simulated cabins and cockpits for crew members to respond to a range of cues and issues, these simulated cabins should absolutely contain actors playing passengers who will present the cabin crew members with a range of challenges. These challenges could be things like finicky passengers, demanding passengers, passengers having panic attacks, passengers going into hysterics or hyperventilating, diabetic passengers who have low blood sugar and a list of other difficulties that could occur during a long flight. Cabin crew members need to be fully adept at dealing with a host of challenges not just from the atmosphere outside, or the aircraft, but from the very real and very live passengers inside.

One of the aspects which makes flying such a challenging career and one which requires the highest level of training and expertise is that the environment outside of this "workplace" (the plane) cannot support human life. Cabin crew members know that a decompression failure is an emergency possibility that they need to be fully prepared for. "According to FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) (2010)2, decompression failures happen when modern aircraft fly at altitudes which are too high to support human life. Failure of pressurization in the airplane shows various disasters according to speed of the loss. The loss of pressurization may lead to physiological effects of passengers in aircrafts from the very cold temperatures and not enough oxygen" (Liu, 2010). This would be a suitable scenario to have enacted within a simulated cabin with actors posing as passengers. The crew members would have to react without delay and respond in the manner that they've been trained for such a scenario.

Crew members must not only help passengers get a hold of their own supply of oxygen from the masks stored above their heads, they must also reinstate order and keep hundreds of people calm (Liu, 2010). it's also possible that people might be injured as well; the cabin crew members have an obligation to coordinate with the team members in the cockpit until everyone is calmer, more organized and the plane, most importantly, has returned to a safe level of flight. While one school of thought would feel it's adequate to lecture/teach cabin crew trainees what to do in such a situation, test them on it, and have them engage in a simulated cabin where the advanced technology is able to replicate a failure of decompression, another school of thought would argue that in order to best prepare trainees for such an experience, they really would need actual human beings becoming panicked and hysterical about the failure of decompression. The reality is that the best and at this point only way to achieve this is to mimic the medical profession's use of actors.

On a somewhat similar note, safety threats such as uncontrolled fires are incidences which happen rarely on aircraft but which definitely pose a formidable threat to the airplane and all people aboard. While having the proper training is essential with all cabin crew members aware of the equipment that is available to them and how to immediately stomp out the fire, this is something that needs to be aptly simulated in a controlled environment such a simulation cabin for flight crew training. In such a controlled environment, team members will be graded on how quickly they put out the faux fire, what equipment they used and if any damages were incurred.

Finally, with all simulated cabin training for flight crew members, there absolutely must be training specially target for safety measures and appropriate reactions during takeoff and landing. Take-off and landings have been responsible for a range of accidents and while aviation authorities have created new rules for these specific moments, the crew needs to be at the top of their game at these occasions, functioning with their highest level of control, observation and precision. If any issues occur during take-off and landing, members of the cabin crew need to respond without hesitation, "combined with deep-depth information of the tools, equipment and procedures, and a capability to analyze the situation response accordingly. They must not open the exits where the structural damage exists, or where the fire hazard might threat the shift of passengers and cause the fire. Especially in a patently disastrous situation, cabin crew should be able to initiatively shift themselves, or start to shift when they are told by the flight deck or senior cabin crew member" (Liu, 2010). At the same time, members of the crew need to be able to ensure that passengers get out of the plane as quickly as possible while helping them with any support they might need and directing them to stay away from the plane, but to a safe area (Liu, 2010).

During such a situation, when the stakes are so high and nearly all of the passengers are panicked and frightened, the members of crew need to be the ones who conduct themselves with control, commitment, fearlessness and knowledge about the aircraft. Their ability to do this depends exclusively on the extent of their training. In such a situation, every second can cost another human life and the crew members are the lifeline of the passengers (Liu, 2010). How well they are trained makes an impact on how strong that lifeline is.

Conclusion

All forms of transit have their risk, and the risk of flying above the earth in a pressurized cabin is inherently risky. However, how well cabin crewmembers are trained using the power and impact of advanced simulated devices and processes can make this experience exponentially safer for the entire amount of people on board the aircraft. Harnessing the latest forms computerized and engineered forms of aircraft simulation training materials can be invaluable, particularly to the pilot and those who work in the cockpit. However, more can be done to make the simulation training for the cabin crew even more effective. This would largely orbit around the use of actors posing as passengers in a highly controlled and high-tech simulated cabin, where the staff would be forced to deal with multiple emergencies forcing them to be challenged like never before.