Flight School Security Awareness Training for Aircraft and Simulators

October 26, 2004
Scenarios – Flight School with Airplanes

Question
A pilot approaches you at the rental desk to check on the availability of one of the aircraft. He appears nervous, jumpy and keeps looking over his shoulder at the gentleman behind him. You observe the man standing behind the pilot and notice that he is concentrating on the pilot and seems to be concealing something under his arms. You have reason to believe that the pilot is under the control of this man.

Answer
Your first response should be to contact local law enforcement. This is a serious situation requiring the immediate intervention of law enforcement personnel. Depending on the situation, it may be difficult to diagnose and not be immediately apparent to flight school employees. Therefore, each flight school employee’s level of situational awareness, familiarity with established policies and programs and just knowing the pilot staff members becomes extremely important when determining that a pilot is under the control of another person. After contact with the local law enforcement agency has been made, the supervisor should contact the GA hotline to report the incident. Additional information is also available through the AOPA Airport Watch Program.

Question
An individual approaches you at the Customer Service Counter wishing to rent an aircraft. He presents seemingly valid flight and medical certificates, but needs a lot of help with the terminology when filling out some of the paper work. He also does not know the names of the different aircraft that he can rent or where he wants to fly. Some of his questions seem bizarre and his lack of knowledge of the various aircraft clearly shows that he does not have a corresponding level of aviation knowledge. Page 20

Flight School Security Awareness
October 26, 2004

Answer
Your first response should be to question the individual. Question the person about their aeronautical experience and observe their behavior as each question is answered. Try to determine if the customer’s answers are truthful or evasive, direct, nervous and/or hesitant? Observe the individual for obvious signs of nervous behavior and a lack of eye contact. What other types of aircraft have they flown? In what other parts of the country have they flown? Where did they receive their flight training? In what aircraft types have they trained? How long have they been flying? Why do they want to rent today? Where are they going? Inform them there must be an aircraft checkout ride with a company pilot before they can rent the plane and go alone. Depending on how the customer reacts to questions such as these, you may want to contact a supervisor and bring them and/or a chief pilot in on the conversation. They can help assess the individual’s answers and level of knowledge. If the supervisor believes something is amiss, they should report the incident to the GA hotline.

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