Flight attendants trained to cooperate

Flight attendants trained to cooperate


By Audrey Hudson
THE WASHINGTON TIMES


Flight attendants on commercial airlines are still being trained to
cooperate with hijackers and be victims rather than fight back,
despite the attcks of September 11.
"Their wrists were bound, their throats slashed," Patricia Friend,
president of the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), told the
Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee yesterday.

The September 11 panel revealed that hijackers "beat the last line
of defense on the four flights, because the professionals had been
trained to cooperate with hijackers, not fight them," Miss Friend
said.
"Unfortunately, I am here to report to you that nothing has
changed since that horrible day. We are no better prepared today to
handle a situation like that which occurred on September 11th and our
training is still woefully inadequate."
The AFA, which represents 46,000 flight attendants, wants Congress
to legislate training guidelines to teach attendants to help protect
the aircraft during a terrorist attack. Currently, training methods
vary from airline to airline.
Attendants are trained to fight fires in the air, administer first
aid and evacuate a plane in case of an accident, but instruction on
dealing with hijackings advises flight attendants to remain
complacent, Miss Friend said.
"Our skies are not safe and they will not be safe until flight
attendants receive the training necessary to protect our passengers
from another September 11," she said.
Tape recordings of the September 11 hijackings reveal that the
terrorists first killed the 25 flight attendants on board the four
planes to gain entry to the cockpits. One passenger who tried to
intervene and save the flight attendants also was murdered.
Most passengers did not witness the fatal attacks because curtains
blocked the view between first class and coach. Flight attendants have
successfully lobbied to have those curtains removed so they can have a
complete view of all passengers.
Additionally, air marshals and pilots are told that if necessary
to "shoot through" attendants, and air marshals are being trained to
do so during training simulations.
"Doesn't it make more sense to train that flight attendant to
assist in a crisis rather than to be a human shield?" Miss Friend
said.
The hearing was immediately adjourned without comment from the
panel after Miss Friend's testimony owing to the Senate's voting
schedule, said Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican and the
committee's chairman.
However, last week, Republicans and Democrats led by the
committee's ranking member Sen. Ernest F. Hollings, South Carolina
Democrat, wrote David Stone, Transportation Security Administration
administrator, reminding the agency that Congress has instructed it
three times to develop "comprehensive, mandatory and industrywide
standards" for training.
"We find it unacceptable, as flight attendants are the only part
of this security team that are guaranteed to be in the cabin 100
percent of all flights and it is absolutely critical that they receive
adequate security training," wrote 36 lawmakers.
"We cannot ignore the urgent need for flight attendant security
training as it has become clear that Al Qaeda is still targeting U.S.
aircraft and that the General Accounting Office has reported that
weapons are still making it onboard the aircraft."
The lawmakers said they were "frustrated" that TSA has not
developed guidelines and "strongly urged" the agency to act.
Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary for border and transportation
security at the Department of Homeland Security, told the panel that
the government would soon have a training module in place for
voluntary secondary training.
But Miss Friend said after the hearing that "it defies logic" to
design secondary training and completely skip initial training.
"We are quite frankly at a loss to understand why neither our
industry or the TSA understand the role that we should be trained to
perform and the position we are in," she said.
A Homeland Security official said a basic training curriculum was
developed and delivered to the airlines to implement but is now being
revised with stronger requirements and will be sent back to the
airlines to enforce by the end of the year.
That's in addition to the advanced training. Flight attendants
also will be given martial arts training.