The Environmental Medicine and Physiology Unit (EMPU) is the only civilian hypobaric (altitude chamber) facility in Canada available to the aviation industry for hypoxia awareness training.
The EMPU hosts Canada's only High Altitude Indoctrination (HAI) Program available to civilian, private, commercial, and transport airline pilots and crew. This is a standard procedure used by NASA and the Canadian Armed Forces to familiarize pilots, skydivers, and aviation medical doctors with the signs and symptoms that accompany hypoxia.
After completion of the training, you will be able to recognize hypoxia and initiate the proper procedures in the event of cabin depressurization during flight. In the military, regular HAI training has been shown to save lives.
In the recent Canadian Air transportation safety investigation (report A18W0116) of the loss of aircraft and crew in August 2018, the findings identified that:
"If flight crews do not undergo practical hypoxia training, there is a risk they will not recognize the onset of hypoxia when flying above 13,000 feet without continuous use of supplemental oxygen.... You invest significant resources and time to ensure your aircraft is airworthy, do not forget to invest in your most valuable asset... your flight crew."
