Air rage training for cabin crew

Vinnie Jones is a famous culprit of "air rage"

A smart but unassuming building on the outskirts of Wrexham has been turned into a centre for the safety of aviation workers.

Global Air Training in the village of Llay is 50 miles away from its nearest international airport at Manchester.

However, that has not stopped some of the biggest names in the air industry asking the company to help train their staff to deal with the rapid rise in air rage incidents.

Just two months ago former Wales international footballer Vinnie Jones was sentenced to community service and ordered to pay £1,100 for "air rage" offences.

He was also given 80 hours community service after admitting assault and using threatening words or behaviour towards an air crew.

Cabin crew are taught easy to remember self defence moves

Global Air Training in Wrexham is teaching airline crews how to handle similar incidents.

"Statistics seem to be showing that air rage is on the increase," said Diane Warby from the company.

"It could be the fact that there is no smoking on board aircraft now, people have alcohol which is freely available both in the terminal and on the aircraft and disruptive behaviour breaks out for a number of reasons.

"It can also be fuelled by fear and part of the course actually assists the crew in determining what the causes of the behaviour are."

Ms Warby will not reveal which airlines send staff on her company's courses but she says attendance figures are on the up.

It's absolutely unacceptable to be thinking of stewards or stewardesses on a plane punching or kicking a member of the public Simon Squires, Trainer

The firm was founded six years ago and has gone from strength to strength.

To counteract the disruptive passenger behaviour, Global Training has introduced a course, entitled 'Managing Disruptive Passenger Behaviour'.

Participants are taught how to deal with aggressive travellers in a non-confrontational manner.

"Most crew will have come across a certain amount of disruptive behaviour," said Ms Warby.

The defence techniques taught are very short but not particularly violent and they aim to break contact between two people.

Defence trainer Simon Squires said Global Air Training does not train people to use unacceptable force when dealing with a fraught situation.

"It's absolutely unacceptable to be thinking of stewards or stewardesses on a plane punching or kicking a member of the public," he said.

"Our course is aimed at controlling the situation and diffusing it at all costs."

To avoid air rage during a flight, passengers are urged to relax and be aware that every alcoholic drink at altitude will have twice the effect as at ground level.