New pilot training plan sparks worries

Brussels, Belgium: The international airline industry, faced with a growing passenger load and a shortage of pilots, is ready to graduate its first flight crews from a shortened training program that experts warn may not be good enough.
The new curriculum – known as the Multi-crew Pilots License – departs from conventional methods by slashing schooling time both on the ground and in the air and by making greater use of flight simulators.
The industry says the program will improve the ability of new co-pilots to function as flight crew members, but critics argue it’s a quick-fix scheme to overcome pilot shortages that could compromise safety standards.
The program was conceived in 2000 by the Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) , the U.N. agency in charge of civil air traffic. It designed the program to rely more on simulators and to train students from the start to function as crew members on the specific types of aircraft they will operate during their careers.
Supporters say the new program – known as MPL – is a significant improvement, since trainees are placed immediately into the multi-crew environment working closely with other pilots, rather than spending long periods flying solo as is required by the present schooling system.
But critics say they are skeptical about the need for such sweeping changes in training programs, claiming these are principally motivated by economic considerations and by the airlines’ desperation for pilots.
“Simulators are good to teach system operations, but real flying is needed to learn airmanship, the very basis of safety,” said Philip von Schoppenthau, secretary-general of the Brussels-based European Cockpit Association, a pilots’ union.
Over the past several years the growth of air traffic in the Middle East and Asia and the proliferation of budget airlines in Europe and the United States have created a drastic shortage of airline pilots. With global air traffic predicted to grow by 5-6 percent annually over the next two decades, the shortage will only become more acute.
The primary demand for pilots will come from China, India, Southeast Asia and the Persian Gulf region.
The new program will begin graduating pilots this year from schools in Australia, the Philippines and Denmark. The first six cadets who will finish are being trained in Australia by Alteon and are from China Eastern Airlines and Xiamen Airlines, also a China-based carrier.
So far, the U.S. Federal Aviation Authority and most European regulatory agencies have not given the go-ahead for using MPL. But pressure has been building to inaugurate its wider use, and the program will likely soon be accepted by established air training academies.
The MPL would allow a trainee to qualify as a co-pilot in 45 weeks.
Currently, trainee pilots must complete 50-60 flying hours to obtain a Private Pilot’s License, then about 150 hours for a Commercial Pilot’s License, the basic commercial permit. The Air Transport Pilot’s License – the advanced credential required to fly a commercial airliner – obliges pilots to log about 1,500 flying hours. The entire process takes roughly two years.
But the MPL would only require about 64 hours of actual flight time as pilot-in-command, because the emphasis would be on simulator training. The International Civil Aviation Organization argues the new curriculum would save on the time a trainee is required to “punch holes in the sky” flying solo in a piston-engine trainer.
Nonetheless, critics note that 45 weeks is about the time needed to obtain an ordinary driver’s license in Europe. They say the trainees will not have enough time to learn basic English – the language of international aviation.
22/08/07 Slobodan Lekic/Associated Press/Washington Post, United States