The academy conducted a guided tour of its various training facilities including advanced simulators for Masood and other guests including reporters to highlight the measures taken by Saudi Arabian Airlines to ensure the safety of its passengers.
Masood gave a presentation about her institution’s academic programs and facilities. She said Cranfield had given an honorary doctorate to the late Prince Sultan, former deputy premier and minister of defense and chairman of Saudia in appreciation of his contributions to the aviation industry.
“Cranfield University considers it an honor to award a honorary degree to the late Prince Sultan. This makes both our leading organizations feel closer,” she said, adding that the university has been the academy’s partner in providing teaching and training to Saudia employees.
“We had also the pleasure of supervising a number of its staff researching for a Ph.D award.”
The research programs at the university focus on the latest developments in the aviation industry and cater to the requirements of Saudia and other airlines. She said she was looking forward to further strengthening mutual cooperation between the two organizations.
“This collaboration can be in the form of doctoral research or continuous professional development short courses that can be offered to your staff,” Masood told Saudia officials.
Capt. Talal Ageel, managing director, spoke about the privatization of the academy. “We expect the privatization process to be completed within the next few months. We are looking for a strategic partner to add to our experience,” he said while highlighting the tremendous progress achieved by the academy.
Accompanied by Ageel, the guests were taken to the academy’s cockpit simulators. They were also briefed by Farah Walid Kendeel on the various safety training programs given to cabin crewmembers to deal with situations like fire, smoke, air crashes and also how to participate in evacuation in an emergency. “I was really impressed,” said Masood about the academy’s facilities and training programs. “I am happy to see a lot of progress here toward ensuring passenger safety, and Cranfield is all about providing cutting edge research, teaching and training to make flying safer and aviation safer for passengers,” she told Arab News.
Dr. Ali Al-Harabi, manager crew skills development at the academy, Salah Al-Suwailem of the Defense Ministry and Dr. Wail Al-Harasani of King Abdulaziz University are graduates of Cranfield. Al-Harabi emphasized the need for more academic and hands on programs to train manpower required by the growing aviation industry.
Capt. Sami Al-Munaie, in charge of safety training, said cabin crewmembers should be trained to prevent accidents before they happen.
“Preventing accidents is more important than tackling them.” There were also calls for using the academy’s facilities to conduct research. “These facilities can be used to conduct research on pilot behavior, stress and fatigue. Europeans and Americans do research on their pilots. We need research on our pilot behavior because our pilots have different backgrounds,” one expert said.
