Run, Hide, Fight When There Is Nowhere to Run

Run, Hide, Fight is the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s guidance for an active attacker. Run if there is a safe way out. Hide if there is not. Fight only as a last resort, when your life is in imminent danger. The advice is sound, and it was written largely for offices, schools and public venues, where exits and cover exist.

The attack on flydubai FZ1073 on September 30 shows that many of the places our clients spend their time offer neither. At 34,000 feet there is nowhere to run or hide. Captain Smit Machchhar’s response, and the passengers who acted when the cockpit door opened, show what Fight looks like when it is the first option.

It is not the first time. On September 11, 2001, passengers on United Flight 93 learned by phone what had happened in New York and Washington, and chose to fight back. The aircraft came down in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, short of its target. Twenty-five years apart, both flights show the same thing: when something goes wrong in a sealed space, the people already on board are the response.

Where the model breaks down

• Aircraft. Commercial and private. No exit until the aircraft is on the ground.
• Vehicles. Fast to leave if you plan for it. A trap in traffic if you do not.
• Yachts and vessels. Isolated, often hours from help, with crew you may not know well.
• Elevators, stairwells and single-entrance rooms. Common in hotels, venues and offices.
• The home at night. Families asleep, staff off duty, and the intruder already inside.

Run: plan exits before you need them

• Know two ways out of every room, vehicle and venue. For principals, advance work does this. Families can do it informally.
• In a vehicle, the vehicle is the exit. Keep doors locked, the tank above half, and enough space in traffic to pull out.
• On a vessel, know the muster points, the tender and who is in charge.

Hide: a barrier, not just a hiding place

• A locked, solid door buys time. A closet with a curtain does not.
• Choose a safe room or a lockable interior room in advance, with a phone and a light in it.
• Silence phones and stay out of line with the door.

Fight: commit, together, with what you have

• Decide in advance. People who have thought it through act seconds sooner, and seconds decide the outcome.
• Act together. On FZ1073, several people committing at once restrained an attacker one person could not.
• Use what is at hand. Fire extinguishers, bags, belts and blankets can all distract, strike or restrain.
• Control the hands. Pin the weapon hand and keep the attacker restrained until help arrives.

After: the first ten minutes

• Stop the bleeding. Direct pressure and a tourniquet save lives before help arrives. Keep a trauma kit in vehicles and at home, and know how to use it.
• Call and report. Your location, the number of attackers, and the injuries.
• When responders arrive. Keep your hands visible and follow their commands.

For organizations: everyone who travels needs this

Corporate security teams protect executives well. The rest of the company travels too. Sales teams, engineers and managers fly commercial, drive rental cars and stay in hotels every week, usually alone and with no security support. Any one of them could be the passenger nearest the door.

Duty of care means preparing the people you send. Training should reach every traveler, not only the protected few. SAG trains staff on site, tailored to how your people actually travel:

• Awareness. Recognizing pre-incident behavior in airports, hotels, vehicles and offices.
• Run, Hide, Fight adapted. Decision-making for aircraft, vehicles, hotels and single-exit rooms.
• Bleeding control. Hands-on practice with tourniquets and pressure dressings.
• Team response. Short drills so groups act together instead of waiting for someone else.
• Travel preparedness. What to plan, carry and share before every trip.

For individuals and families

A family or family office plan should be short enough to remember: exits, a meeting point, who calls whom, where the medical kit is, and when to fight. Rehearse it once a year, with household staff and drivers included. SAG builds and tests these plans as part of the Exposure Assessment and our training programs.