Self Defence to be part of cabin crew training?

[The Real Slim Shady]

Well the Daily Mail (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1046599/Air-rage-attacks-binge-Britons-soar-assaults-cabin-crews-double.html) article says it all.

Will it become part of your conversion and recurrent to demonstrate skills in kung fu fighting?

I sincerely hope your company doesn't tolerate assaults on crewmembers.

[jetsetjobbie]

It already is at FCA.

[Spongebobsquarepants]

As far as i was aware FCA do not give their crew any kind of restraint training as they do not carry a restraint kit.

[Abusing_the_sky]

They could always give use permission to use the crash axe if needed:ok::}



Rgds,
ATS

[PC767]

Self defence techniques already taught at BA, plus 1 proactive move in anticipation of problems. This has been the case for some years, plus we carry a number of rigid handcuffs and restraints on our aircraft which suprisingly are regularily used.

[Juud]

Been there, and sitting at home with a broken jaw and badly bored is what got me onto PPRuNe many many years ago. Silver lining that. ;)

We get some self defence (not enough IMO) and very good training in how to handcuff a berserk passenger. Pax out of control is a scary thing for both pax and CC. As stated in the article, there are many obvious causes for the increase of these unplerasant episodes.
Regrettably, the people who have put in effect many of these changes that affect the flying public, are not the ones having to deal with resulting violence at 35 000 ft. :ugh:


.. had one on my last flight.. slightly handicapped man sitting opposite to me at the exit who refused to move seats until we turned onto the runway and the Captain made a very ters PA .. he refused to hand over the bag on his lap .. he made my life and that of the surrounding pax very miserable for the 12 hour flight. Being a lawyer he knew EAXCTLY how far he could go, and there was nothing we could do about him. At a certain point, we even had to seriously calm down other pax who were so fed up with his antics that they wanted to beat the sh!t out of him.
Kudos to the pilots who, during their rest periods, came down and tried everything they knew to get him to calm down. It didn't help, but it made me feel supported and meant a lot to the pax. When leaving the aircraft this bastard took a picture of me and threatened that he'd plaster me all over the net and he'd make sure I'd get fired... delightful.
And even if I try not to dwell on such episodes, it influences the way I feel about getting onto that aircraft again... :(

[jetsetjobbie]

As far as i was aware FCA do not give their crew any kind of restraint training as they do not carry a restraint kit.

They require FCA crew to be able to read too. The question was self defence, not restraint, and was answered accurately.

[VS-LHRCSA]

I think what spongebob was getting at was the article which mentioned a passenger being restrained, not your post. This concerned me as well because when I was at Air 2000, we had breakaway training but not restraint because, as mentioned, they do not carry restraint kits.

Have restraint kits been introduced or is the article incorrect? I do recall an incident many years ago when Air 2000 were doing an Aliltalia contract where they had to restrain a passenger with headsets. Maybe the crew in this article improvised as well?

[Spongebobsquarepants]

I love the way that people go for the throat on forums like this. At the airline i work and train for we incorporate restraint and self defence and call it "restraint training". The restraint kit and the ability to restrain is the only kind of self defense we have. I suppose as Cabin crew there is something reassuring about having one. We also teach our crew about "reasonable force" and when and how to use it. Im sorry if my original statement led to any confusion. My point about FCA was that if they do not have restraint kits and therefore the ability to restrain they would not teach their crew self defense.

[The Real Slim Shady]

Juud,

When you get a tosser like that you may wish to remind him, being as he was a lawyer, that so long as his legal 8ss is seated on your airplane that he is required to follow the instructions of the Commander, which have delegated to you.

Alternately you could always find the most nauseating kid / adult and seat them next to him ;)

PS You can please all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time. The rest you just have to kick the sh1t out of

[onboard]

"When leaving the aircraft this bastard took a picture of me and threatened that he'd plaster me all over the net and he'd make sure I'd get fired... delightful."


Well Juud,

In Germany at least if pax want to take your picture, they need your consent. If it is not given, call the friendly airport police and have them take care of it.
And even as a lawyer, I don't believe the guy makes enough money for the settlement of the court case I'd throw his way if he really were to post the pics online.

[BlueTui]

Thomson, we get training in restraint and a restraint kit is onboard.

No Kung Fu training though, although sometimes I wish we did:}

[Flintstone]

Poking my nose in as flight deck from the bizjet world...

We don't have the sort of problems you in the airlines have as our passengers generally own the aircraft. Just in case though my favourite flight attendant is a 7th dan and ex-British karate champion so any grief and I'll just send her in, bless her:ok:.

I believe she also trains CC at very reasonable rates, plus my 10% of course :E

[Cool Wavy NG738]

We've had conflict management/resolution training at our airline since 2002. Also a restraint kit which is used as a last resort after verbal de-escalation skills have failed if the disruptive passenger is a physical danger to the crew/passengers/aircraft, and only ever with the Captain's authority.

[Sylvestria]

That sounds awful Juud... But I don't understand why u didn't offload him? Since the problems began before takeoff. If he is acting like that in a normal situation, it's not very likely that he will listen/respect you in an emergency situation.
It happened once on a flight from BRU, there was an accompanied deportee who was causing a lot off trouble, biting himself so he bled and hitting his head everywhere he could. Of course the rest of the passengers reacted, specially the children were crying, but one of the pax started making a HUGE fuss abt it, screaming at the cabin crew asking what kind of ****ty airline would take a pax like that and so on. In the end the deportee was offloaded, and so was that passenger. He was politly told that he was now free to use any other airline, which according to him was so much better, but unfortunantly he could not come on this flight.