I made it to final 72 interviewees as well
Can I ask where this was gotten from? I'm not saying it is incorrect I'm just interested to see whether that is an actual figure given by them to someone or whether it is a rumour that spread.
I think the day itself was very well planned out. There was certainly a chance to show aviation knowledge in the morning exercises, in the group interview in particular. You would struggle to form any argument in those questions without aviation knowledge as someone else correctly said here. From this they could definitely filter those who have a deep interest/knowledge in the field.
The only area where I think a bit of luck may have been needed was with who your interviewer was. People were telling me coming out their interviews that it was really like a friendly chat, completely relaxed and absolutely not like an intense interview. Well that certainly was not the case with my interview !! haha