Think About it -- FZ1073 Article 3 of 3 -- A Case Study of Command Presence

Zvika Klein of the Jerusalem Post, interviewed Tal, one of the passengers who intervened on FZ1073.[i] Much of the following comes from that interview.

Tal had earphones in, watching Netflix, so he didn’t even hear the initial commotion. But when the aircraft began lurching, he knew something was wrong, pulled his earphones out and headed to the cockpit. He was too late to be part of the cockpit takeover volunteers. He positioned himself in the doorway to the cockpit.

Tal said the defenders were not experienced at all but were “assertive and took charge.” They “… didn’t just seek and pray, they acted.”

They didn’t know the Islamic co-pilot (Fashil, as mocked with explanation in article one of this three-part FZ1073 series) had, moments before, asked Indian Captain Machchhar to let him pray. Fashil took a feigned position of Islamic prayer behind Machchhar who, respecting Fashil’s privacy, remained face forward. It was from that position that Fashil began assaulting Machchhar with a crash ax, kicking at the plane’s dash to damage controls and keeping Machchhar from unlocking the cockpit door.

But Machchhar was determined to get that door unlocked and he succeeded. Passengers became defenders and rushed into the cockpit and took control.

The plane was out of control, heading rapidly for the ground.

This quickly assembled team of defenders took over. Then they selected 2 experienced pilots from the passenger cabin to fly the aircraft.

They told all the crew that they were now in charge of the flight. They would not allow any of the crew (cockpit or otherwise) to participate in any way. They did not know who collaborators were.

The 2 pilot passengers were brought to the front. They had to jump over those giving medical aid to Captain Machchhar and still disabling the terrorist, to regain the controls and level out the plane.

Think About it

You can’t fake command presence. You either have it or you don’t. It can be learned, but self-confidence is a pre-requisite. If not confident, you don’t have natural command presence.

If your security team isn’t assertive, you might just get your control taken away from you by overzealous friendlies. In this case, they needed to take charge. Apparently the only crew member with command presence had been neutralized by ax blows to the head. That will do it!

Train command presence.