COLLEGE PARK, Ga. - With a knife at her throat, Clarissa Zimmermann throws up her arms, leans her weight toward the attacker and knocks him to the floor in two quick shuffles.
It's a maneuver that the 27-year-old flight attendant from Atlanta saw little need to know before the hijacking of four airplanes that crashed into the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
She's mastered the move now.
"Before Sept. 11, we were just completely oblivious that there were people who wanted to take us out," she said.
The nation's airlines are starting to give flight attendants personal defense training on a voluntary basis as a precursor to the formal training the government will begin mandating later this year.
AirTran Airways began offering the voluntary two-day class in January and Delta Air Lines will start similar training next month, with many of the Atlanta-based carrier's 19,000 flight attendants expected to attend.
AirTran's second class of a dozen flight attendants completed their 16-hour course Wednesday at a company office near Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport. Instructors were contracted from a security firm, Intelligence Strategies LLC of suburban Atlanta.
The Orlando, Fla.-based airline plans to offer the course monthly until all its 900 attendants have had a chance to attend, said Cheryl Bercegeay, AirTran's director of in-flight. The classes have received "a fantastic response," she said.
U.S. airlines are developing safety training plans they'll submit to the Federal Aviation Administration for review. Once approved, the airlines will have six months to train all flight attendants.
The first day includes classroom work, covering anatomical issues such as the location of arteries and veins, trigger points and which spots on the body can hurt worst. The second is for physical demonstrations.
While flight crews have been more cautious since September, the course provides an even greater awareness of threats and how to manage them, said flight attendant Mark Huffman, 43, who joined AirTran last month.
"It's giving me self-confidence, that if a situation should arise that I might be able to help," said Huffman, a Milwaukee resident. "For a guy that's 5-foot-7, 130 pounds -- I've never been able to fight anybody off."
The training has added significance, too. In December, flight attendants subdued Briton Richard C. Reid, who was arrested after allegedly trying to ignite his bomb-filled shoes aboard a Paris-to-Miami flight.
Last week, Pablo Moreira Mosca, was subdued with the blunt end of an ax on a Miami-to-Argentina flight after ramming and kicking open part of the cockpit door and trying to wriggle through.
Attendants learn how certain routine activities are more dangerous than others. Crouching next to a seat is riskier than leaning over, since it exposes the head. Approaching a passenger from behind is safer because the person must turn to strike.
And ensuring that passengers' seatbelts are fastened assumes another important reason: Unbuckling it provides the flight attendant an extra second to respond to an attacker.
Delta's courses will begin in mid March in several cities. The company also has added a section of personal defense instruction to the regular annual retraining flight attendants receive, Delta spokesman John Kennedy said. Flight attendants will receive a stipend for the class time, Kennedy said.
"We're looking at this as investing in our employees so that they can build their confidence and security," he said. Neither airline would discuss how much they're spending for the courses.
Other carriers are mulling such programs.
America West is developing a self-defense training program for flight attendants, although no specifics are available yet, said Janice Monahan, a spokeswoman for the Arizona-based airline. American, Continental and Northwest airlines are reviewing additional crew safety measures.
Jeff Zack, a spokesman for the Association of Flight Attendants, said the training might deter belligerent passengers if they know attendants will be able to resist them.
"I think the line changes once the drunks know the crew on the plane are trained to physically handle the situation," Zack said. "Right now, people pretty much understand that flight attendants aren't trained to defend themselves in that situation."
The courses are tailored to a specific environment -- the 12- to 18-inch gap of an airline aisle where an assailant would strike.
Wielding a plastic knife, an instructor asks an observer to time how long he needs to slice three main arteries in a fellow instructor posing as a hostage. Two seconds. Three seconds later, he says, the victim has bled to death.
Flight attendants armed with fake knives take turns practicing evasive maneuvers, keeping the knife from their neck, immobilizing the assailant's arm and hand, twisting so the knife can be turned and its holder wrestled to the floor.
Passengers are a key component of quelling an attacker. Flight attendants are taught to shake the passengers out of shock by yelling, and then "reward" onrushing passengers with the task of watching out for others when no additional aid is needed.
Friday
January 10th, 2025
5:53PM
