Managing Disruptive Passenger Behaviour

Statistics indicate that the number of significant incidents of disruptive passenger behaviour onboard UK registered aircraft is steadily increasing. 2671 such incidents were recorded from April 2007 to March 2008.

Is is vitally important that aircrew have the skills to manage incidents to minimise the impact and maintain  personal and passenger safety.

The delegate will acquire skills in detecting, preventing and eliminating potential incidents of disruptive, unruly or criminal passenger behaviour, and effectively managing such incidents when they do occur whilst maintaining personal and passenger safety.

The delegate will acquire skills in detecting, preventing and eliminating potential incidents of disruptive, unruly or criminal passenger behaviour, and effectively managing such incidents when they do occur whilst maintaining personal and passenger safety.

Experience and research indicate:

• The largest proportion of all in-flight incidents will require only verbal intervention if dealt with using correct conflict management techniques.
• If an incident becomes physically threatening, many of the currently taught defensive techniques are inappropriate and ineffective under pressure given that aircrew will typically receive only a few hours of training.
• There will often be a large physical strength disparity between cabin crew and a disruptive, aggressive passenger.
• Disruptive passenger handling procedures must be developed or updated in the context of a secure cockpit door policy.
• The current security environment must be considered.

This programme has been specifically designed to be effective with only one day of training. The delegate will develop techniques and principles which are easily remembered and used successfully, even when under stress and pressure.  In one application, this training system resulted in an 80% decrease in attacks on staff.

Course delegates will learn to:

• Understand the Corporate policy, State and International law on disruptive passengers.
• Recognise and categorise a potentially disruptive situation.
• Recognise behavioural markers that indicate escalation.
• Select and apply intervention techniques to de-escalate.
• Maintain personal and passenger safety.
• Become proficient in techniques to control a disruptive passenger.
• Effectively use simple self defence techniques should an incident become violent.
• Understand the procedure of handing over a restrained passenger to the appropriate authorities.