By DENIELLE LEONG
Photos by JASON LIOH
brats@thestar.com.my

IT’S not every day you get to experience flying (and crashing – twice) in a flight simulator. But that’s just one of the perks we get as BRATs – we get to meet amazing people and visit cool places; including an exclusive tour around the AirAsia Academy and their LCCT headquarters in Sepang, Selangor.

The aviation industry is a complex business that involves a lot of different expertise. Aside from catching a glimpse of Apprentice Asia winner Jonathan Yabut in the office (#starstruck!), we also spoke to several AirAsia employees from different fields to enlighten us on their segment of the industry.

In all honesty, this tour has given us a newfound respect (and fascination) for everyone in the aviation industry, and how they do their best to make sure everyone can fly.
Flight simulator engineer

Getting into the A320 simulator was possibly the closest any of us will get to becoming a pilot. The flight simulator, as the name suggests, is a machine designed to mimic the cockpit of an actual aircraft – with all the actual systems and routes included.

There are six flight simulators in the AirAsia Academy, and they each cost about RM30,000,000 – definitely not your average video game flight simulator.

Of course, being the Bright, Roving Annoying Teenagers (BRATs) we are, we treated it more or less like a video game anyway. But according to flight simulator engineer Mohammad Razal Ali, these machines play an important role in maintaining a pilot’s performance.

“All pilots have to spend hours in these simulators for routine training, to equip them with the necessary skills to deal with bad weather or technical difficulties in the most efficient manner possible,” he said, after setting up the system for senior first officers Pragalath Kalimuthu and Hannah Cherly Murray to show us how it’s really done.

“This (training) is extremely essential in order to ensure the safety of our passengers, especially in the event of emergencies,” added Mohammad Razal.

Flight attendants

If you think all flight attendants have to do is just look pretty and serve you food, you are so wrong. Of course we all knew that wasn’t the case, but after speaking with some of the flight attendants-in-training at the AirAsia Academy, we got a better idea of just how tough their jobs are.

“We do everything. We are your waiters, cleaners and even your rescue team,” said flight attendant-in-training Jasreen Kaur, 18.

Jasreen and her fellow flight attendants undergo rigorous training to equip themselves with all the essential skills their job demands.

During our tour, for example, we witnessed the flight attendants going through an intense water drill, meant to teach the attendants exactly what to do in an emergency in the water.

Fellow flight attendant-in-training Jefferson Lee Kwang How, 23, added: “We are trained to attend to almost any kind of medical emergency on-board. It could be mild burns over spilled coffee or even reviving a passenger suffering from cardiac arrest with a defibrillator.”

Flight attendants are also trained to groom themselves in etiquette classes. During the water drill, for instance, the flight attendants were all in full makeup to mimic an actual emergency scenario as closely as possible.

On top of it all, a right attitude is most essential to being a flight attendant. Their job will put them in many awkward and uncomfortable positions, and it is important to always remain calm – even when faced with the most ridiculous situations.
“There have been cases where people urinate into the sink instead of the toilet bowl,” Jasreen revealed.

Licensed aircraft engineer

Putri Siti Nordiyana recently became one of four female licensed aircraft engineers (LAE) in AirAsia after five years of training. While many girls would prefer to become flight attendants, Putri’s passion lies with the grease and machinery that one can only find in an aircraft.

“I just enjoy getting my hands dirty,” she said, while rejecting the possibility of ever pursuing a career as a pilot. “I can’t imagine having to sit still in the cockpit for all those hours!”

“My job is to ensure the airliner is in good shape before take-off with passengers onboard,” she added. And that job, which requires great attention to detail, occasionally takes up more time than they have, leading to flight delays. Putri said LAEs try their best to assign a different aircraft in such cases so passengers can proceed with their flights.

Of course, the average passenger would rarely consider such issues, or how much effort the flight attendants, pilots and everyone else involved put into making their flights a smooth and safe experience. Thanks to our tour of the AirAsia Academy, that’s a mistake we won’t be making any time soon.

The BRATs would like to thank AirAsia for giving us the tour of their Academy, and letting us crash their simulator – twice! Log on to facebook.com/starbrats or iSnap this page to watch a video of the tour.