Flight attendant foils kidnappers with flight attendant training skills

Heather Poole, Gadling’s very own flight attendant who knows the moves to take care of herself and everyone else on a loaded plane, brought this China Daily article to our attention. In China, a flight attendant who two guys had kidnapped, got away by using the anti-hijacking techniques she learned in flight attendant training.

The attendant, an employee of Shanghai Airlines, learned — in preparation for the Beijing Olympics — how to stay calm, act obedient, keep the kidnappers engaged, discretely untie a rope, and make a run for it when the kidnappers weren’t paying attention to her. According to the story, one of the men got into her car at a green light and forced her to pick up another man at a different location.

They took her bank card and her pin number. Her quick thinking probably saved her life. It turns out that, last July, these two guys killed a woman motorist they had kidnapped. This was discovered after she told the police what had happened and they were able to apprehend this pair.

As this story points out, one that is corroborated by Heather’s Galley Gossip post on recurrent flight attendant training, flight attendants know the moves that make a difference in air travel. Maybe their theme song ought to be “Kung Fu Fighting.” Everyone knows Kung Fu fighting, fast as lightning … although in this case, rope skills and calm were the key ingredients.



That flight attendant is something of a hero … something these women are definitely NOT. Click the pictures to find out what kinds of trouble they were getting to in the air.