NBAA Resource Outlines Crew Resource Management and FAA Part 135 Training Requirement
Why It MattersCRM moves from a recommended safety practice to a baseline training obligation across Part 135 charter operations, so crew communication and decision-making become standardized program content rather than an operator-by-operator choice.
What happened
NBAA has published a resource explaining Crew Resource Management, or CRM, which it defines as the incorporation of team management concepts into flight operations.
According to the resource, CRM focuses on communication and interaction among pilots, flight attendants, operations personnel, maintenance personnel, air traffic controllers, flight service stations and others. It also covers single-pilot communications, decision making and situational awareness.
The resource states that a final rule requires all certificate holders conducting operations under Part 135 to include crew resource management training for crewmembers, including pilots and flight attendants, in their training programs.
Industry impact & what to watch
Part 135 certificate holders include on-demand charter operators and other commercial business-aviation flight departments. A rule that applies to all of them means CRM content becomes a fixed part of each training program, instead of something carried only by operators that chose to adopt it. For crews, that places communication, decision making and situational awareness on the same footing as procedural and systems training.
The resource's definition is broad. It extends CRM beyond the cockpit to maintenance, operations personnel, controllers and flight service stations, and it addresses single-pilot operations as well. That breadth matters for small charter operators, where training programs often serve crews that fly alone or in two-person teams and rely heavily on ground staff.
The practical test of the requirement will be how operators build CRM into their approved training programs and how closely the content tracks the topics NBAA lists.
