Some good has come out of the 2009 disaster of flight Air France 447, when an Airbus A330 on its way from Rio de Janeiro to Paris went into an aerodynamic stall and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 passengers and crew.
When the aircraft’s black box was finally recovered, two years after the crash, it was found that problems measuring the aircraft’s airspeed, possibly caused by ice crystals in the pitot tube, caused the autopilot to disconnect. The pilot responded incorrectly and created the stall, leading to the crash.
So, after much consultation with the airline industry, the European Aviation Safety Agency has determined that pilots will have to undergo specialist Upset Prevention and Recovery Training to help them respond to unexpected situations to avoid what’s known as Loss of Control In-flight (LOC-I). The regulation is expected to come into force from 8 April 2018, with a transition period of one year.
The proposed pilot training will comprise of additional upset-prevention- and upset-recovery-related theoretical knowledge (TK) and flight instruction for the commercial aeroplane licences.
A newly-developed advanced UPRT course is to become mandatory for ATP and MPL training courses, before starting a type rating course in multi-pilot operations. Instructors involved in pilot training will themselves have training to deliver the various UPRT elements.
NOTE: photo top is in a flight simulator, courtesy of APS Training.
For training towards non-commercial licences (light aircraft pilot licence (LAPL) and the private pilot licence (PPL)), the existing training syllabus will be slightly revised to introduce UPRT elements.
