Safety aspects of personnel selection and training of pilots

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British Airways does not provide basic flying instruction but chooses its candidates for training from those who already hold a commercial pilot's licence. A lengthy and sophisticated selection process is employed to ensure that those chosen for further training possess the required intellectual and emotional attributes which include, inter alia, potential for leadership together with the ability to work harmoniously as a member of a team. Most of the further training, both technical and personal, is done on the ground using a variety of modern educational techniques, especially the flight simulator; this is a multi-million pound device which can accurately reproduce all the routine and emergency situations which may be encountered in the air. An important aspect of safety training is based on the knowledge that human error is invevitable. It is therefore regarded as acceptable that one member of the flight crew may make a mistake in judgement or performance, but it is essential that this error does not remain undetected by another member of the crew, who must report it. This policy of shared responsibility, whereby the collective opinion of the crew is of greater value than any individual's opinion (synergy), is of great importance and is facilitated by training all pilots to the same high standard. The maintenance of that standard of competence and safety after qualification is no less important. This is achieved in a variety of ways: attendance at courses, safety conferences, annual examinations, and most notably by continuous automatic monitoring of performance—with confidential feedback of this information when necessary—and biannual refresher sessions on the flight simulator. The overall aim is that the pilot should not only be competent and safe but that he should also inspire confidence in his passengers and crew and be a worthy ambassdor for his company.