Fast-track pilot training programme rings alarm bells

27 August 2007

The first batch of graduates from a shortened flight-training programme is ready to get its wings and fly passengers on commercial routes. The new curriculum — known as the multi-crew pilots license (MPL) — departs from conventional methods by slashing actual school time both on the ground and in the air, and making greater use of flight simulators.

The international airline industry, faced with a growing passenger load and a shortage of pilots, is waiting to get its first flight crews from the new programme. But experts warn that the graduates of this new curriculum simply may not have been trained sufficiently to fly.

While the industry says the new programme improves the ability of new co-pilots to function as full flight crew members, critics argue that it's a quick-fix scheme to overcome pilot shortages that could seriously compromise safety standards.

The programme was conceived in 2000 by the Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the UN agency in charge of civil air traffic. It designed the programme 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, rather than commanders.

MPL's supporters say it marks a significant improvement, since trainees are placed immediately into a 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 the changes are motivated mainly by economic considerations and by the airlines' desperation for pilots.