rev 15dec06

Assault and Hijacking Workshop

April 10 2002
A Conference Presented by the Human Factors Committe
of The Royal Aeronautical Society at BA Flight Training Cranebank

Dispax 2: Assault and Hijacking Workshop 2002

Objective: The aim was to review risks, procedures, policies and security solutions as they affect CRM and broader flight deck and cabin Human Factors issues; to discuss specific issues and form a reportable consensus, and to share tools, techniques and ideas to improve training and procedures.

An industry concern is that much of the post Sept. 11 security focus has been an effort to respond rapidly to events, often without consultation on the CRM impact of security measures. This workshop is an opportunity for those directly affected to brief, consider and respond constructively.
The workshop was therefore designed for CRM practitioners, to provide guidance as to when, how and where to deal with the serious HF issues raised by the present industrial and security environment, and how to bring these issues to the attention of Ops Management.

Where does flight safety stop and HF begin? What about the divisions that the new flight deck door will create or exacerbate between crews? How will cabin crew handle being left isolated with the threat?

1. Presentations
Presentations are posted when cleared by speakers. All presentations are copyright (c) 2000 by their authors. Information and papers presented here are not intended for sale or redistribution without written consent from their authors.

Note: Many of the presentations and papers provided below require Adobe Acrobat, a document viewing application. This is available free:

Jens Rolfsen: Post-Incident Support for Aircrew: An Operator's Experience
Rebecca Chute: Cabin/Cockpit Communication Post 9/11

2. Workshops
The main work of the day was in facilitated workshops in the afternoon session. The final list of topics included:

• Are the security benefits of a locked cockpit policy outweighed by the safety risks? Options moving forward from Sept. 11
• New Skills and Training Needs for the Closed Cockpit Environment: Re-evaluating the Procedures
• Integrated Situation Assessment for Ground Staff and Cabin Crew
• Collaborative Decision Making for Cabin Crew and Flight Crew (Inger-Helene Enger, R. Chute)
• Basics of Hostage Negotiation: Defining Training Needs and Key Course Components (A. Leppard)
• What attention, if any, is paid to post-incident support for staff involved in assault and hijacking? (R. Bor, J. Rolfsen)

Reportback from the workshop sessions will be released as a briefing paper in early May, 2002.

3. Related Information

For background material for this conference please consult the Proceedings of the first Disruptive Passengers conference.
Flight Ops Requirements under ANO Art 31(3)(d) and JAR-OPS 1.1040(j)
Rebecca Chute and Earl Wiener, "Cockpit/Cabin Communication: I. A Tale of Two Cultures" (PDF, requires Adobe Acrobat)
Chute, Wiener, Dunbar and Hoang, "Cockpit/Cabin Crew Performance: Recent Research" (PDF, requires Adobe Acrobat).
Rebecca Chute and Earl Wiener, , "Cockpit/Cabin Communication: II. Shall We Tell the Pilots?" (PDF, requires Adobe Acrobat).
Rebecca Chute, "Synergy in an emergency: The interface between flight-deck and cabin crews" (PDF, requires Adobe Acrobat).

4. Conference Information

Programme