The BBC visited British Airways cabin crew training centre at Cranebank back in 1987. They followed several crew in a class, documenting their training to become newly minted air crew.
It provides an interesting peek into aviation at the time. For those of us into aviation, seeing the vintage Boeing 747-200s they are flying on is very cool.
Cabin Crew Training Video
This video is produced by the BBC from the show Forty Minutes and runs, not coincidentally, at 40 minutes. It dives deep into the crew training for British Airways as it was at the time.
Some of it is hilarious such as the descriptions of the trainees. “Paul Higgins, 21, likes Bette Davis and Barbara Stanwick” for one – what could they mean? By contrast there is, “Neil Dover, from Durham, 21, was a builder. Likes football and motor racing – wondered when he applied if his friends would call him gay.” Ahh the 1980s!
A little later the hits keep on coming, with the announcer slating the uniform. “The female uniforms may have a designer, Prison Wardress touch to them, but they have to be functional.” All of this is before we get to seven minutes in!
It’s great seeing all the various elements they go through, plus their initial line flights. I wonder how much of it has changed – I imagine not a lot!
Overall Thoughts
Cabin crew training is always interesting, as there is a lot more to it than you might initially think. Considering all the things that can go wrong, it is not surprising the emergency training is extensive.
BA’s Cranebank Training Centre is now abandoned and some urban explorers went inside to see what remains. Turns out plenty was just left there from back in the day, which is interesting.
Are you air crew? What do you think of the training here? Has much changed? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image via British Airways.
