One of Green Light’s flagship programmes is its Hijack Exercise. A hijack is a nightmare scenario for aircrew that can, unfortunately, become a reality. We aim to provide participants in our exercises with some appreciation of techniques employed by hijackers to control their hostages, and to gain a valuable insight into the management of an incident from the perspective of either a crew member or a passenger.
Hijack Exercises demonstrate how a ‘traditional’ hijack might develop and the techniques that hijackers may employ to intimidate passengers and crew. No exercise can replicate the horror of a genuine incident, and we do not attempt to do so. However, by selecting a number of different scenarios from a range of previous hijack incidents, crewmembers can learn how their colleagues managed to respond to the different challenges with which they were faced. Whilst many exercises conducted by government agencies are designed to test airport management, Special Forces, other security agencies and negotiators, the Green Light version is specifically designed to benefit crewmembers.
Each participant has a role to play and all will be briefed as to how they should dress and behave. Full details as to how to prepare for the exercise will be sent to clients. The lessons learned are discussed in a debriefing session following the exercise. However, if the client opts to run the exercise in tandem with one of our Hijack Management courses, the theoretical part of the course will be linked to the exercise experience as our instructors will have ensured that the various stages of a hijack have been clearly demonstrated.
The exercises are best conducted on board an aircraft, although some of the more advanced cabin simulators are equally effective. The scale of the exercise is dependent upon client needs, the availability of an aircraft or cabin simulator and any local legislation relating to our ability to bring deactivated weapons, blank firers and dummy explosive devices to the exercise venue. Airlines opting to include the exercise as a part of their training programme will receive a detailed briefing on how best to prepare for the event.