PHOENIX — The TSA is resuming its Crew Member Self Defense training course after being put on pause because of COVID-19 restrictions.
The class is taught by US Air Marshals and is in high demand by flight crews looking for ways to defend themselves and passengers after viral videos of altercations in mid-flight are becoming more common.
So far in 2021, there have been 4,941 unruly passenger incidents on commercial airlines, according to the FAA. Of those cases, 3,580 are related to the mask mandate which has now been extended until January 18, 2022.
A dispute over a mask turned violent on October 28, when a first-class passenger on an American Airlines flight punched a flight attendant twice in the face. The flight from JFK to California made an emergency landing in Denver where the male passenger was arrested.
“I’ve seen passengers get into a fight next to me, so I need some kind of way to protect myself”, a flight attendant for United Airlines named Helen explained.
Helen, along with about a dozen other flight crew members from across the country, gathered at a U.S. Federal Air Marshals facility near LAX in Los Angeles.
The course is taught at 24 locations across the U.S.
“Through this training program, TSA’s Federal Air Marshals are able to impart their specialized expertise in defending against and de-escalating an attack while in an aircraft environment,” Darby LaJoye sad, a senior official for the TSA said.
Over the four-hour class, flight crews learn how to identify and deter potential threats aboard an aircraft. Federal Air Marshal, or FAMS, instructors teach self-defense techniques like stance, blocks, strikes, and punches.
Techniques as severe as eye-gouging are taught on BOBs, or body opponent bags, as a last resort to stop a threat and sure the plane lands safely.
“People lose their minds, lose sense of reality, and who knows how far they are willing to go,” a veteran flight attendant named Wendy explained.
The Air Marshals prepare the class mentally and physically for high-stress situations through a series of mock drills.
In the final class exercise, each crew member will be put to the test with a mock attack drill in an airplane cabin simulator with FAMs acting as unruly passengers. The crew member will have to use their newly learned self-defense skills to handle each scenario.
“I felt good, I felt prepared. I feel like I’ve got the tools,” Wendy said.
Most of the nearly 6,000 flights that take off daily in the U.S. will land without incident. The flight attendants attending the class say they hope to never have to use any of the techniques they learned.
But if the situation calls Wendy says, “I treat it like my family is on that flight, so I’ll make sure we land safely.”
Under the FAA’s zero-tolerance policy, fines against unruly passengers in 2021 have exceeded $1 million.
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