Lesson 3: The People
Lesson 3 will give insight into the people involved in a flight - the maintenance crew on the ground, the air traffic controllers, the flight attendants and the pilots - and will focus on the high safety standards they have to attain as well as their training.
Introduction
It’s great to have the best planes and equipment but even more important are the people who handle every aspect of a flight. From the pilots to the flight attendants, the maintenance crew to the control tower, everyone involved with your flight is carefully picked, expertly trained and highly experienced to ensure your comfort and safety.
Not only do they go through retraining and updating their skills, there are reviews and random drug testing. Pilots never know when they’ll have someone on their flight to check them.
People who are afraid to fly often think of airline personnel as faceless, nameless people and sometimes imagine that they are remiss in doing their jobs. In this lesson we’ll learn that all these people are not only well trained, experienced and caring human beings, they have a stake in your safety too.
We frequently read about airline layoffs, cutbacks, deficits, even chapter 11 in the airline industry and it’s natural to wonder how this will affect the passengers. Will the personnel still be trained? Will they cut corners on maintenance? Will our safety be compromised?
Safety will not be compromised. Airlines in financial difficulty might cut back on the food service, administrative jobs, and even the number of flights to reduce costs. There may be fewer baggage handlers, baggage handling equipment might not be repaired, service might generally be worse, but the plane will be safe.
Flights still scheduled will have stringent regulations, top quality people and well maintained planes. Safety is always the predominant concern and everyone working on a flight wants it to land safely.
Pilots and flight crews fully expect to come home from work each day just like anyone else. Nobody is taking any chances or cutting corners on anything important. It would cost an airline a lot more in the loss of life, loss of a plane, lawsuits and loss of reputation than it does to keep the plane properly maintained.
The people who are involved in your flight from start to finish are prepared for every contingency. Nothing is left to chance and when they’re trained, it’s not enough to just learn how to fly the plane, serve the food, plan the route, fix the plane or keep planes apart. Pilots have additional training in simulators programmed to duplicate every emergency that anyone can think of. Air Traffic Controllers also receive training in simulators programmed with chaos and emergencies galore.
Don’t think they’re doing this because they expect it to happen. Emergency conditions rarely occur but they still need to learn the procedures so well they can perform them calmly, smoothly and professionally in the event that one actually does. Everyone working in the various aspects of your flight is an extremely skilled expert at what they do.
In this lesson we're going to meet the many people involved in your flight. We’ll start with the maintenance crew, move on to air traffic control and then the actual people on the plane – the flight attendants and the pilots. Once you get to know them as people, you'll see that they want the flight to go perfectly too.
By the way, if you ask the flight attendant if you can say hello to the pilot, most are happy to accommodate you when time allows. I've been to the cockpit on planes many times and had very friendly pilots show me the view of the sky from the front window (breathtakingly beautiful). It's very soothing and enjoyable to meet them and goes a long way to easing your fears.
