Story ID: 614
FlightSafety Introduces Kidnapping Prevention Course
By: Kim Rosenlof
Caption: Atlanta-based Skydas Group leading two-day anti-kidnap course for VIPs and aircrews through FlightSafety.
Word Count: 189
FlightSafety International (Booth C10625) recently launched a course aimed at preventing corporate aircraft passengers and crews traveling abroad from becoming kidnap victims. Security consulting and threat management firm Skydas Group leads the two-day abduction prevention course, which focuses on teaching pre-travel planning skills and counter-surveillance techniques in addition to actively thwarting a kidnap attempt.

“You may have an overnight in Mexico City, Djibouti, or other places where dropping out of the sky in a $1 million to $60 million airplane automatically puts you on a target list for international terrorists or crimes of opportunity,” said Skydas Group CEO Mike Briant. “While the primary target is the high-net-worth individual, support staff like pilots are also targets. If they have the pilot, they [can get to] the primary target.”

Offered monthly at FlightSafety’s Atlanta, Georgia, learning center, the course comprises 15 modules designed to prevent successful attacks and wraps up with a field exercise in which attendees attempt to thwart a simulated kidnapping or attack, as well as learn to discover technical surveillance devices. Skydas Group can also conduct the course at an FBO or corporate site.