Flight attendants take self-defense classes to handle unruly passengers as airplane cabins see more chaos
CBSN
With pandemic stress frazzling the nerves of COVID anxious travelers, there is a renewed sense of importance among flight attendants to learn how to protect themselves.
"It's getting crazy out there lately. So it's better to know what to do to defend ourselves against any sort of attacks," one flight attendant told CBS News. The air marshals in the New York field office say a post 9/11 self-defense program that had been on hiatus during the pandemic returned last month with a renewed sense of urgency.Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.