SHARJAH International
Airport on Saturday concluded its training
course titled Handling a Telephonic
Bomb Threat. The course was conducted
by Chris Vanzel, a lecturer at the UAE-
based Global Institute of Justice and
Technology.
The four-day course
was to train personnel at the airport's
information desk to deal in a professional
manner in the event of a bomb threat.
"Although the
United Arab Emirates, and the emirate
of Sharjah in particular, is known as
a safe and secure place with no incidents
of threatening calls received, the airport
needs to be prepared in case such an
eventuality does arise," said Salem
Al Midfa, director, administration and
commercial, Sharjah Airport Authority.
He added that the airport's
strategy was to cope with the latest
global developments with regard to improving
staff competency and capability along
with developing security and safety
measures at the airport. "We received
a good response from the participants,
especially the staff from the Ground
Services Department of the airport,
who joined this training course. We
are looking forward to conducting similar
training courses and are thankful to
the participants, the training section
and the Global Institute for their time
and commitment," said Midfa.
The course addressed
a number of topics including investigating
reasons for the bomb threat. Participants
were also trained to identify the people
making these calls from a list that
includes criminals, deranged or mentally
disturbed people, drunk persons among
others.
They were trained on how to handle
the emerging situation and the right
questions that needed to be asked and
at the same time being able to make
careful observations so as