Sky high

Private jets with fewer than 19 seats are not legally required to carry trained cabin crew. For superyacht owners, then, this means their yacht crew can also crew their private jets, something Debbie Elliott, training manager at TAG Global Training, points out is of great appeal to owners. “We have a number of UHNWIs who only want their trusted people around them. It’s very easy for them to say, ‘If I don’t need to have cabin crew with me I’m just going to have my butler’,” explains Elliott. “Or, ‘I’ll just have the chef from home. She knows how I like everything, as I’m with her for weeks on end on the yacht, so I’ll just put her on the jet.’ They’re all trusted by the owner.”



While this may initially be of significant appeal to owners, they must take into consideration the lack of mandatory training on these jets with fewer than 19 seats. An initial look at the safety differences between jets and yachts already highlight a number of differences: the affect altitude has on fire, the number of exit points and the surrounding elements. With this in mind, owners who are considering taking their yacht crew on their private jet would do well to consider putting their yacht crew through even a minimal level of training.

This is something TAG Global is looking to tackle with its offering of an up-skilling course aimed at anyone who might travel with a private jet owner but is lacking cabin crew experience, from yacht crew to nannies and bodyguards. “We offer this training to give the candidates a greater understanding of emergencies and scenarios on board the aircraft. They have the opportunity to open an over-wing exit, so they can understand the weight and force needed to do that,” explains Elliott. “It’s about those people who work and surround the UHNWI and how they can better support that person and his or her family safely on board the aircraft.”

Also on offer is a yacht-crew-specific bolt on: Crew Resource Managemanet (CRM), a course that is mandatory for pilots and cabin crew. “We can see that the yachting community doesn’t have this training as standard. It’s about how to work as a team and how that can affect the outcome,” Elliott explains.

Elliott concludes by highlighting one frequent on-board role, both on yachts and jets: the nanny. “Nannies often travel alone with the children to the yacht, during the holidays,” says Elliott. “It’s really about giving those people who work closely with the owners a little bit more understanding about what happens at altitude.”

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