"I'll be glad to comment. To comment on what happened on the SLC bound flight where the passenger died would be inappropriate...I wasn't there.
As a Flight Attendant I can comment on the fact that prior to 9/11 we were...and to a large extent still are woefully unprepared for such an occurence. We're not trained for what happened on that flight. Period. Only since 9/11 has any type of quantative self-defense training been made available to me as a cabin crewmember and even then I am required to take it at my expense and on my own time.
If the crew handled the situation poorly, it's because they were never trained to do otherwise.
But, none of us wants to see this kind of thing keep happening. I'm headed in for my annual recurrent training in a few months...at the end of the session, we are asked for suggestions. What would you have me tell our training department we could do to keep this from happening again?
Until the level of training improves you will continue to have a mixture of unruly passengers, ill-prepared crewmembers and passengers who feel their lives are in danger...this will continue to be a recipe for disaster."
SWAFA - I to am a Flight Attendant. The only difference in training post 9/11 is to no longer be passive, but aggresive. The law states that self-defense training is optional. At my airline, one can take it or not take it. If one chooses to take the class, our company will pay for it. But of course any airline can have their own rules. They have to at least have it available. No rule as to how it is made available.
What kind of training do you think you or the crew needed to have had a different outcome? The minute that guy hit that door, start yelling for help and grab the nearest hard object and whack him over the head with it. That's what a Flight Attendant should do. The heck with any image you want to portray at that point.
Training will do nothing to change the quality of passengers that fly. When I started to fly, people dressed when they came on board. Now it's an inner city bus station. (don't be offended, check out chicagos downtown facility sometime) The ground staff can only check for the obvious signs of intoxication, mental illness or if someone is having a meltdown out in the waiting area before they get on the plane. Unless every passenger undergoes some sort of mental compentcy test, we're always going to have some screwballs. It's up to you to understand that. Educate yourself as much as you can, but ultimately it is up to you if you feel comfortable flying these days. I'm not afraid to fly. 9/11 did shake me up, my very first leg when they opened the airports again was the flight path over lower Manhatten into LGA. I am more aware than ever, but I'm not going to let anyone drive me from my chosen profession.