Effective Simulator Read the following WSJ article. Answer the questions posed at the end. Adapted from Crash Courses for the Crew Wall Street Journal By SCOTT MCCARTNEY Though showered with world-wide praise and treated to a hero's hometown welcome, Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger offered a businesslike account of the swift and dazzling actions that saved the 155 people aboard US Airways Flight 1549. "I know I can speak for the entire crew when I tell you we were simply doing the job we were trained to do," he said Saturday in Danville, Calif. Indeed, it wasn't the first time the US Airways pilots had confronted double-engine failure or prepared for a ditching. Nor was it the first time that flight attendants had thrown open emergency doors, inflated rafts and herded passengers out of an Airbus cabin in seconds. But it was the first time they had done all that when actual lives were at stake. Their previous experiences were all part of the rigorous training pilots and flight attendants undergo. In emergencies, airplane crews typically revert to their training, aviation experts say, and a close look at the training at US Airways Group Inc. and other airlines shows how well-prepared the experienced crew of Flight 1549 was for their crash into the Hudson River on January 15. Air-crew training has grown far more sophisticated. At US Airways, annual training for flight attendants has shifted in recent years from classroom teaching to more hands-on practice evacuations in full-size Airbus cabin simulators because research has shown the importance of practice drills. "Now over 80% of the day is in simulators evacuating aircraft, with very little time spent in the classroom," says Bob Hemphill, the airline's director of in-flight training. US Airways gives newly hired flight attendants five weeks of training, from an introduction to the aviation industry to procedures for opening each type of door on each type of aircraft they'll fly. The airline has a full-size Airbus cabin simulator in both its Phoenix and Charlotte training facilities, plus "door trainers" for its Boeing airplanes, so flight attendants can practice opening emergency exits under tough conditions (total darkness, billowing smoke) and evacuating cabins. In both cities, initial training includes jumping into a pool and practicing opening a life raft, helping people in and out of the raft, putting up the canopy and using the raft's sea anchor and medical kit. After the initial training, federal law requires annual classroom safety training for flight attendants and hands-on performance drills every 24 months. Three days before the crash of Flight 1549, the FAA proposed increasing that requirement to hands-on drills every 12 months. US Airways has flight attendants undergo two days of recurrent training every year -- one day of home study and one day at the training center to practice emergency procedures and measure proficiency. That includes opening doors after first checking for fire, water or debris, pulling a handle to inflate evacuation slides if they don't automatically inflate, dealing with disruptive or slow-moving passengers and

knowing how to climb over seats to get to window exits if necessary. "There is a standard of physical performance you must maintain," Mr. Hemphill says. Part of the training includes working emergency scenarios in the classroom with pilots so the entire crew has experience coordinating and communicating. Private aviation training companies offer similar courses for corporate pilots and flight attendants, and contract with some small airlines to train flight attendants. US Airways flight attendants practice removing over-wing exit doors. Research into the psychology of how passengers respond to an emergency has shown that people look to the flight attendants for leadership. Mr. Hemphill believes honing emergency skills year after year pays off. The three flight attendants on Flight 1549 -- Doreen Welsh, Sheila Dail and Donna Dent -- had 90 years of collective experience and at least 26 years of flying for each, dating back to both Piedmont and Allegheny airlines, two carriers folded into the current US Airways. Within seconds of hitting the water, two flight attendants opened the front doors of the plane -- one had to manually pull a lever to inflate the slide that doubles as a life raft, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. As the tail of the plane sank lower in the water, the third flight attendant, sitting in the rear, decided not to open a door after seeing water rising outside. She moved passengers forward to over-wing exits. For flight attendants, "their training and years of experience develops an automatic instinct," said Mr. Hemphill.

1. What features are included in US Airways simulators to produce a high-fidelity training environment?

2. Thinking about the crash landing of Flight 1549, what were some unanticipated factors that were likely present in that landing but werent and couldnt be reproduced in a simulator?