12 Weeks of Harsh Training: Preparing Flight Attendants for Any Situation

① Flight Attendant Safety Training

Airline cabin crews are responsible for onboard safety. According to Article 2 of the Aviation Act, they are defined as flight attendants who perform safety tasks onboard, such as evacuating passengers in emergencies.

Cabin crews start their training as soon as they join the company. The training can be broadly divided into safety training and service training.

Flight attendant safety training includes basic training in emergency first aid, aviation security, and fire suppression. It is conducted to respond appropriately to potential emergencies onboard. Intense training is provided as they are responsible for directing passengers’ evacuation in emergencies.

Only those who pass the training process can wear the flight attendant uniform. If they fail, re-education is conducted, and if they fail the re-examination twice, they are disqualified and dismissed.

Flight attendants receive training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation, fire suppression, and emergency evacuation using slides, as they are responsible for passenger safety. Regulations require that the passenger control slogan exceed 110dB. If the voice does not exceed 110dB in the examination, they must retake the test or be disqualified.

One of the challenging parts of the training for trainees is safety training using equipment. They conduct emergency evacuation training to evacuate passengers in an environment similar to an aircraft. The golden time for safely evacuating passengers is considered to be 90 seconds. The training aims to ensure that all passengers can evacuate to the emergency exit within 90 seconds.

They receive training to escape through a 10-meter-long slide from a full-size aircraft. Flight attendants approach the training with the mindset of not missing the golden time. They undergo safety training for about 10 to 12 weeks immediately after joining the company. The training continues even after they become full-fledged flight attendants, with 15 hours and 30 minutes of regular training every year.

② Strengthening In-flight Security Training

Flight attendants also receive in-flight security training. The training is conducted using handcuffs, tasers, and lanyards.

Cabin crews can restrain or detain passengers who threaten onboard safety, such as onboard assault, device manipulation, and attempts to enter the cockpit. Since flight attendants also handle security management, they must speak in informal and commanding terms to passengers in case of emergencies.

As aviation security incidents increase, flight attendant security training expands. Each airline is strengthening security training to respond to all emergencies.

Korean Air announced last November that it had conducted delegated training for cabin safety instructors at the Presidential Security Service’s Security Safety Education Center. They completed the “Aviation Security Training Course” at the Presidential Security Service’s Security Safety Education Center. Nine people participated in the training and shared it with their fellow cabin crews during the regular safety training conducted by Korean Air every year. Korean Air has been receiving training at the Presidential Security Service’s Security Safety Education Center since 2017, the first among private companies.

Asiana Airlines strengthened flight attendant security training last year. They applied practical know-how passed down from special forces counter-terrorism personnel and security experts to all flight attendants in their annual regular safety training to respond to illegal activities onboard.

They conducted security training, including restraining unruly passengers, special martial arts, taser use, and shooting training. Asiana Airlines also introduced tasers capable of rapid firing and trained flight attendants in their use and shooting.

③ Training to Identify Passengers Also Conducted

On the 9th, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced a legislative notice of a revision to the “National Civil Aviation Security Education and Training Guidelines,” which focuses on strengthening the aviation security training of flight attendants. Through this revision, the content of flight attendant training has increased to eight, and the training time has been expanded from two to three hours.

From now on, flight attendants will receive training on how to identify passengers’ unnatural behavior. Flight attendants must complete training at a designated institution at least once a year to acquire security information and technology related to their duties. This manual was created based on the abnormal behavior signs manual used by the police and military.

Passengers who need to be closely watched include those who repeatedly ask specific questions to flight attendants, those who are overly expressionless and suddenly make various faces, those who sweat a lot, and those who wear clothes that do not match the season.

This prevented actions like last May when a passenger opened the emergency door on an Asian Airlines flight. At that time, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport judged that the flight attendants did not immediately recognize when the passenger manipulated the emergency door. The Ministry announced that Asiana Airlines violated the Cabin Crew Operation Manual’s content, saying that “passenger trends should be monitored for safe flight.”