Securing sky-high safety

At a training session simulating an emergency water landing, ANA ight attendants and others evacuated from a plane and onto a rescue ra oating on water. Held in ANA Group’s training facility in Ota Ward, Tokyo, these drills are conducted almost every day at the ANA Blue Base and use equipment with mock-ups of passenger planes.

In addition, the facility has ight simulators in which trainees can experience controlling aircra in various kinds of weather conditions.

Such training facilities for ight attendants, mechanics and other industry-related occupations used to be located in di erent areas, but have since been integrated into the current facility. e complex has an area of 30,000 square meters, making it one of the largest in Japan.

e facility also o ers behind-thescenes tours to the public so that as many people as possible can learn about the aviation industry. Tour participants can observe training sessions from behind glass walls, with ight attendants and other sta as guides. Reservations are necessary for the tours, which are so popular that they have been fully booked almost every day, most likely because the facility is rare in that participants can observe the airline company’s various job training in a single area.

Since training information is only given on the day of the tour, many participants visit more than once. For the trainees, the tours seem to be well-liked. “We can train under some pressure when we’re being observed,” one trainee said.

Naoki Matsunaga, 22, a student in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, visited the facility with his friends and said that he hopes to become a pilot. “I have an increased sense of security a er understanding how many people work together to get a plane into the air,” he said. (Sept. 19)

Various mock-ups of planes used for training are seen inside the ANA Blue Base in Ota Ward, Tokyo, on July 8.

Above: A flight attendant explains about the training facility in the same simplified terms as plane announcements. Below: Flight attendants take part in an emergency water landing drill.

Tour participants view flight simulators.