Did you see the story from the San Jose International Airport this past weekend?
Just before 3pm on Saturday, an SUV pulled up to the arrival curb outside Terminal A at Mineta San Jose International Airport. Two men dressed in black got out of the SUV and approached the information desk to inquire about flight 1205 from Dallas. Both men carried assault rifles that were strapped across their chests and they had handguns in their holsters.
One of the volunteers politely asked if they were one of those people on planes that look for terrorists…one of the men simply answered no.
The volunteers commented that they did not know if it was proper for people to walk into an airport with assault rifles and just stand there to wait for a passenger.
The volunteers were unsure what to do and commented after the incident that they had received no training on how to handle heavily armed visitors.
A parking control officer at the airport asked his supervisor what he should do and according to one of the volunteers the supervisor said: “Next time that happens, have one of them sit in the care while the other once comes in” because the airport prohibits unattended cars at the curb, especially under the current orange alert level.
Does your organization have volunteers? Does your organization have parking control officers or security guards?
Do you provide ongoing situational awareness training for all individuals?
What if this happened at your organization? How would your employees or volunteers react? Does your organization provide ongoing situational awareness training?
General training is usually a one-off event that is inadequate and ineffective in helping individuals deal with new and changing situations, new and changing regulations, new and changing risks and new and changing procedures.
Lessons learned like this are great for ongoing situational awareness training…are you using them?
