FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine 
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute

Report No: DOT/FAA/AM-24/07

Title and Subtitle: Extended Reality in Flight Attendant Initial Training

Report Date: April 2024

Authors: L. L. Breeding, T. M. Phipps, D. B. Weed, M. S. Beben

Supplementary Notes: Author ORCIDs: Breeding (0000-0003-2740-2790), Phipps (0009-0009-1290-2048, Weed (0000-0002-5184-6933), Beben (0000-0003-0587-5984). Technical report DOI: https://doi.org/10.21949/1524430 Data Management Plan DOI: https://doi.org/10.21949/1529638.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) funded this through the Research, Engineering, and Development (RE&D) program budget. The authors had no conflicts of interest to disclose. All authors read and approved this manuscript. This manuscript underwent external peer review. The Principal Investigator (PI; LLB) and sponsors (TMP and Sharon Tkach) conceived the project in collaboration with internal FAA sources. The PI acquired the data, performed the data analysis, and wrote the technical report with input from the coauthors. This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Transportation in the interest of information exchange. The U.S. Government assumes no liability for the contents thereof.

Abstract:

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to determine if the addition of extended reality (XR) to an existing training program provided to new hire flight attendants improved training effectiveness in terms of cabin door procedures. Methods: This retrospective cohort study used preexisting flight attendant training data provided by a collaborating organization. The data were divided into two groups, the AQP-only control group, and the AQP+VR intervention group. The data represented training events (n = 13,525) spilt between AQP-only (n = 11,180) and AQP+VR (n = 2,345). The groups were compared in terms of cabin door training pass rates. Results. The observed training pass rate was 84% in the AQP group vs. 88% in the AQP+VR group. Conclusion: Supplemental XR training appeared to improve cabin door procedural training effectiveness, although there were some important study limitations resulting from the retrospective study design.

Key Words: Aviation safety, cabin door procedures, extended reality, virtual reality, flight attendants, training effectiveness

No. of Pages: 10