JEDDAH, 5 June — Gulf Air claims to have become the first airline in the Middle East to implement the evaluation of nontechnical abilities as an essential part of their pilot selection procedure. All first officers, pilot recruits and cadets of the airline will now be subject to an assessment by qualified aviation psychologists, in order to confirm that they possess the personality characteristics and operational attitudes appropriate for an airline pilot, according to an official press release. These checks are intended to ensure good progress in flight training, and are linked to a broader program within the company to promote crew resource management (CRM) principles as a further means to improve safety and proficiency. The new procedure is said to be the result of nearly 12 months development. The procedure has been specially designed in conjunction with the aviation and space psychology department of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), one of the world’s leading independent organizations involved in the selection of operational aviation personnel. Capt. Peter Weiss, Gulf Air’s VP operations, who masterminded the development of the new procedure, said: “In close collaboration with the DLR, Gulf Air has designed and implemented a system of pilot evaluation and selection for flight training that is comparable to those adopted by any of the most forward thinking international airlines. As well as heaping to reduce failure rates during initial training, resulting in significant cost savings, this is one of the single most effective methods of developing top quality pilots.” Some major Western carriers, as well as other leading airlines, have already adopted similar systematic pilot selection procedures and have benefited from lower rates of failure during flight training. The airline’s working agreement with DLR, which has 50 year experience in aviation and space psychology and is responsible for the selection of all German airline pilots as well as astronauts for the European Space Agency, will eventually have far reaching implications for the flagship carrier of Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar, he added.
