Diagnostic tool for pilots enhances airline safety
16 November 2023
Dr Maria Treadaway, Faculty of Arts, was awarded a best thesis award for her work to test the language fluency of trainee pilots
Over the next 20 years, hundreds of thousands of pilots are going to be needed to fill the demand for international travel. English is the lingua franca – or default language – of aviation and all professional pilots need to adhere to a global standard.
However, there are no standardised measures for assessing a trainee pilot's linguistic readiness for practical flight training.
Dr Treadaway has developed and validated a diagnostic language test for student pilots who are training towards a career flying internationally. This represents the first research-based benchmark for entry into practical flight training programmes. The test has been made available to aviation training organisations worldwide to make flying safer.
To re-publish and share this video, contact Gilbert Wong, gilbert.wong@auckland.ac.nz