What to Do If Your Plane Is Hijacked

W A S H I N G T O N, Feb. 27 -- California businessman Don Detrich said "count me in" when a fellow passenger on a flight soon after Sept. 11 said they'd have to act if anyone tried to hijack their plane. Then he realized he didn't know what to do.

That's when he came up with the idea for Flight Watch American Inc., a company to train fliers to handle everything from unruly passengers to terrorists.

Detrich felt passengers were unprepared for the role now thrust upon them. "If your plane is hijacked, like it or not, you've been drafted to do hand-to-hand combat with a crazed group of suicidal terrorists."

Detrich recruited husband and wife Michael and Dana Maudlin, both former police officers, to teach the course.

Dana Maudlin is also a flight attendant for a major airline. They held the first class earlier this month in an aviation museum in San Carlos, Calif., south of San Francisco.

Michael Maudlin told the participants: "We don't want you to be neurotic. We don't want you to get on a flight and be terrified the whole time. Think. Assess."

About two dozen people paid $350 each for the all-day class. Among them was retired San Francisco firefighter Paul Murray.

The 68-year-old Murray flies only a few times a year to visit his grandchildren. But Murray says he's ready to step in if need be.

"Am I willing to become involved?" he said. "Yes ma'am, I am. And I want to be as effective as I possibly can."

He's not alone. An ABCNEWS poll found 61 percent of Americans willing to take on skyjackers. Eighty percent of men and 44 percent of women said they would take action.

Would passengers overreact? A third of those polled worried that passengers would make things worse. But 51 percent felt the greater risk was failing to act.

Awareness and Vigilance

The Flight Watch course stresses that passengers should always follow a flight attendant's lead. The course doesn't teach self-defense. Instead it focuses on awareness, preparation, telling participants to watch out for suspicious passengers, and to figure out what's available on airplanes to use as restraints — items such as belts, shoe laces and headset cords.