US: Flight attendants train in self-defense amid spike in unruly passengers
"Help!" yelled a flight attendant as she grabbed a knife-wielding man and wrestled to pin the knife against her hip. "I need help!" Then the struggle stopped. "Alright, let's do it again," the instructor said. "Reset!" The knife was made of rubber. The man was a fellow flight attendant. They struggled not in a life-or-death brawl inside a cramped airplane cabin, but instead practiced at a padded gymnasium with their federal air marshal instructors. The eight flight attendants in this Miami-area class were among hundreds the TSA plans to train this summer and fall in self-defense skills. It is restarting the half-day course first developed in 2004 that was recently put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic. The skills include how to strike, stomp and subdue a violent attacker -- a scenario these flight attendants said they hope to never encounter. Amid the return to air travel this year, the number of unruly and violent passengers is spiking. More than 100 incidents were reported to the FAA in the last week -- for a total of more than 3,600 so far this year. Flight attendants are taught a set of de-escalation techniques to handle difficult passengers -- the ones who won't stow a tray table or who insist an oversize suitcase fit in the bin last time. But they say the defiance and violence that accompanies this return to travel is testing those skills. "You get on a plane full of people and some of them are not very happy and you just never know what's going to happen," said Carrie, a flight attendant who took the class as she returns to work after a pandemic-related leave of absence.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2021-07-29/general/us-flight-attendants-train-in-self-defense-amid-spike-in-unruly-passengers
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US: Flight attendants train in self-defense amid spike in unruly passengers
"Help!" yelled a flight attendant as she grabbed a knife-wielding man and wrestled to pin the knife against her hip. "I need help!" Then the struggle stopped. "Alright, let's do it again," the instructor said. "Reset!" The knife was made of rubber. The man was a fellow flight attendant. They struggled not in a life-or-death brawl inside a cramped airplane cabin, but instead practiced at a padded gymnasium with their federal air marshal instructors. The eight flight attendants in this Miami-area class were among hundreds the TSA plans to train this summer and fall in self-defense skills. It is restarting the half-day course first developed in 2004 that was recently put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic. The skills include how to strike, stomp and subdue a violent attacker -- a scenario these flight attendants said they hope to never encounter. Amid the return to air travel this year, the number of unruly and violent passengers is spiking. More than 100 incidents were reported to the FAA in the last week -- for a total of more than 3,600 so far this year. Flight attendants are taught a set of de-escalation techniques to handle difficult passengers -- the ones who won't stow a tray table or who insist an oversize suitcase fit in the bin last time. But they say the defiance and violence that accompanies this return to travel is testing those skills. "You get on a plane full of people and some of them are not very happy and you just never know what's going to happen," said Carrie, a flight attendant who took the class as she returns to work after a pandemic-related leave of absence.<br/>
