Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2005
City
Dayton
Abstract
International flight operations became commonplace in the 1950s with the introduction of jet transport aircraft. The new jets had speeds that were twice as fast as the piston aircraft they were replacing, a range great enough to transit oceans nonstop, and a lower operating costs that made international travel affordable to many more people. For the most part, most of the pilots flying these aircraft were natives from the airline’s home country. As international operations expanded exponentially, many airlines had difficulty finding native-born pilots to fly their aircraft. The human resource departments of many airlines began to recruit new pilots globally. While most of these airlines had programs in place to teach rudimentary crew resource management procedures, the bulk of the training the pilots received concerned the technical operation of the aircraft and the takeoff, enroute, and arrival operations the pilots could expect during actual line operations. Very little training was given to the pilots in how to communicate effectively with people from different cultures. In addition, many pilots and air traffic controllers had difficulty clearly speaking and understanding English, which is the international language of aviation. This has had a negative impact on flight safety during international flight operations.
This presentation will show the results of the experimental method, which was selected to test five hypotheses:
1. Small group instruction techniques have no effect on improving authoritative/assertiveness interactions between pilots on culturally mixed flight decks.
2. Small group instruction techniques have no effect on improving the decision-making capabilities between pilots on culturally mixed flight decks.
3. Small group instruction techniques have no effect on improving trust between pilots on culturally mixed flight decks.
4. Small group instruction techniques have no effect on interpersonal relationships between pilots on culturally mixed flight decks.
5. Small group instruction techniques have no affect on improving the team atmosphere between pilots on culturally mixed flight decks.
The results of the experiment proved that training can improve the authoritative/assertiveness and team atmosphere characteristics of Asians and non-native English speaking pilots, and training can improve the interpersonal relationships and team atmosphere for Anglo and native English speaking pilots.
Proper administration of this training can lead to safer international flight operations.
Repository Citation
Beneigh, T. N.
(2005). Communications Between Team Members of Different Cultures and Nationalities on International Airline Flight Decks. 2005 International Symposium on Aviation Psychology, 50-56.
https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/isap_2005/8
