Air New Zealand Chief Operational Integrity and Safety Officer explains the CEET service and safety training simulator for Cabin Crew. Video / Michael Craig
Air New Zealand reveals the new way it will train crew to manage emergency situations.
“Emergency! Brace!” the group of flight attendants yell out over and over again in perfect unison. Bending over, hugging my knees, I sneak a glance outside the window, where orange flames and blacksmoke billow past as we speed towards the landing strip at Auckland International Airport.
Smoke steadily fills the cabin, as the crew (now with high-vis vests and flashlights) calmly continue to call out instructions to brace. I have no clue what’s happening, but it doesn’t look good.
Catastrophic events are rare in aviation but crew must be prepared to deal with them. Photo / Michael Craig
After making a bumpy but safe landing, the confident, calm chant changes to “Stay! Seated!” as the crew stride around the aircraft opening the left-hand side doors, before firmly but kindly instructing us which doors to exit from.
Stepping through the door, I’m not greeted by an inflatable slide or emergency services but by a huge carpeted room and a group of people chatting animatedly.
I also haven’t just survived a “catastrophic engine failure and fire” but a simulation of such an event in Air New Zealand’s brand new 787 Cabin Emergency Evacuation Trainer (CEET) device.
My heart takes a little while to slow down and I blame it on just how uncannily similar the device is to a real aircraft, from the doors (which cost about $1 million apiece) and the cabins to the plates of food in Business Premier and entertainment screens.
The CEET device is a lifelike replica of a 787 aircraft. Photo / Michael Craig
Alongside the engine failure, we also experience a smoking briefcase in an overhead locker, which was “extinguished” with a mock fire extinguisher and a water landing, where the ocean shimmers outside the aircraft door window, before a crew member opens it and a projection shows a slide unfurling.
These are just a few of the “hundreds” of scenarios the CEET device can mimic, according to Air NZ cabin crew training manager Anne-Marie O’Leary.
O’Leary said teaching crew safety procedures was one thing, but they also must test their ability to demonstrate those skills.
The airline could do this with previous training devices, however, the CEET device presents an extremely realistic physical environment that can run “surprise” scenarios, which O’Leary said was “invaluable”.
In other words, the crew receive “better quality training”, says Captain David Morgan, Air New Zealand chief operational integrity and safety officer and Chief Pilot.
“This means that pilots and cabin crew can train on a wide-bodied aircraft in a number of scenarios which they would otherwise not have the opportunity to do because these things don’t happen very often,” he added.
Captain David Morgan, Air New Zealand chief operational integrity and safety officer, says the new device will help improve training. Photo / Michael Craig
However, this doesn’t come cheap. The device cost $6.5 million and had to be shipped to Aotearoa from Dubai in nine containers, taking four months to reassemble.
Crew are yet to officially use it for their annual training but can already tell it’s “100 times better” than the simulations they’ve previously used.
“I think that the fact that it’s got the different cabins, it kind of gives someone a sense of everything on board,” said Renee O’Sullivan. “We’ve never had anything like that.”
After completing initial training, crew say they do some form of training, whether it’s for aircraft safety or first aid, every four months or so to keep their skills and minds sharp.
“We keep practising, practising, practising, so we know it off by heart,” says Liz Duncan as she explains how to safely go down an inflated safety slide.
