HELPLESS and CLUELESS

In a recent post, pwrmacjedi (http://pwrmacjedi.livejournal.com) brought up a point that he felt Flight crews are HELPLESS and CLUELESS about defending themselves or anyone else. This was specifically in regards to the events that occurred on 9/11.

I tend to agree with this, but as a martial artist I understand why this is so. Martial arts training takes discipline. It takes constant training and a physical and mental component that makes it unsuited for many. While it is true that many airlines are now required to offer basic security training for their flight and cabin crewmembers in order to prepare them for potential threat conditions, these classes are typically only one day and once a year. Effective training would need to be conducted at least two days a week for the first four years of a crew members career, and ongoing training, practice, and evaluation would be required after that. To learn how to deliver a self defense move effectively takes thousands of repetitions, it can't be learned in one day or even one year.

One must also take into account that in a real terrorist situation, flight crews will not be up against untrained, unskilled, uncoordinated and unexpecting individuals. I would be very surprised if the 9/11 terrorist were not highly trained in self defense and expecting a passenger or two to attempt an attack on them. A box cutter can be a very brutal weapon when wielded expertly. As far as a single passenger being able to perform a successful attack, take into consideration your typical martial art taught in the United States. Many of the schools put emphasis on punches, kicks, stances and other techniques  that are not very well suited to an enclosed place such as an airplane. The terrorist on the other hand, has probably practiced extensively for just that sort of setting.

Furthermore, as a society our police and military has trained us to step aside and let them handle these types of situations. And to be honest, the passengers of the 9/11 flights probably didn't realize just how much danger they really were in. As far as the training of the flight crews in martial arts, I think it is a good idea, but I also think it would have made little difference in this situation. Even a fairly well trained weekend warrior would not have been able to confront an armed individual who had been training just for that situation for years. I doubt very seriously that a petite stewardess who only trained because she was required to would fair much better.

One final note, access to the cockpit should have been cut off long ago. I think arming the cockpit crew and reinforcing the door to the cockpit was the best response to prevent another 9/11.