Evolving Technologies for Cabin Crew Learning

Let’s return to the WATS 2025 Day 1 presentation of John Cunningham, COO of the VR/AR Association. The industry executive pointed out the cabin crew and ground ops sector lags behind other civil aviation verticals in their share of immersive technology used for training (between 10-15%).

The Cabin Crew Day 2 Session 7 (Evolving Technology) provided a glimpse of the community’s increased attention to using learning technologies when the use case is appropriate – activities certain to increase the amount of immersive learning cited by Cunningham.

First up at Session 7 was Birdy Raghoonundun Gunputh, Senior Manager Safety Training/Policies, Standards and Legal Requirements, Lufthansa Aviation Training. The community leader hit on some themes familiar to WATS 2025 delegates during his presentation Training Paradigm Shift: The Next Level.

The airline executive first emphasized learning centered 100% on exams does not provide a true indicator of performance. Gunputh then called the delegates’ attention to IACO’s authorization, in 2014, of CBTA for cabin crew training and offered this as a learning model cabin crew programs should strive to embrace.

While the use of XR in training programs is contingent on regulatory approval, Gunputh noted this technology should be considered, when appropriate, to support the move to blended learning strategies.

At the program level, the executive updated delegates on LAT’s D-CEET [Cabin Emergency Evacuation Trainers] project. Announced in June 2024, the effort seeks to fully replicate an Airbus A320 CEET as a “digital twin” based on existing aircraft and equipment specifications. The resulting data model is intended to enable fully immersive training of all relevant training content in VR and additionally as a tablet-based application in accordance with the recommendations of ICAO.

The LAT executive further suggested cabin crew training needs to move beyond using real fires to build crews’ fire-fighting competencies. Emerging opportunities to do so exist with the rapid development of VR and related firefighting equipment.

Denis Manson, Technical Director, Ten Hammers Digital Training, managed expectations and also updated delegates about developments in XR and adjacent technology space during his presentation Improving the Realism of Cabin Door Trainers.

XR, and specifically VR, were offered as a tool cabin crew training programs can use, “but there are limitations so we can’t use it constantly,” he said. On cue the community expert pointed out several limitations in current XR systems. For example, only about 40% of the user’s sensory information is available during the device’s use. Advancements in haptics and other enabling technologies hold promise to make XR-enabled learning more effective in the future.

As the simulation and training community seeks to increase the effectiveness of XR for training, there is a flurry of R&D efforts to expand the use cases for this technology in adjacent high-risk sectors – driving, welding and soldering, fire-fighting, lower-level flight training devices and others.

The executive focused his discussion to the cabin crew community a bit more when he highlighted technology innovations being implemented to migrate cabin door training into the XR domain. Manson cited efforts by Bolverk and Queensland University of Technology to move the task beyond hands-on training.

Declaring that you can’t use VR for all training it remains another resource on a case-by-case basis.