Company Offers Plane Crash Courses for Confidence

In addition to providing the skills needed to survive a water landing, the company says that its exercises can be used to boost team morale.

As far as team-building exercises go, a plane crash may not be everyone’s idea of a morale booster. But as one company is setting out to prove, a life or death emergency, even if it’s only simulated, can bring out the best in staff.

Based in a facility in Groton, Connecticut, Survival Systems USA has been teaching aquatic survival training since 1999. While past clients include the F.B.I, the National Guard and the New York Police Department, Maria C. Hanna, Survival Systems USA president, noted that her company was giving customers more than just the practical advice they needed to survive a crash.

“We’ve seen residual effects along the way: improved morale, self-esteem, capabilities people didn’t know they had,” she told the New York Times. Now, she says she wants to market the organization’s services to companies looking to enhance morale among their employees.

For companies eager to get their workers involved, Survival Skills USA offers a very realistic simulation of a water landing. Exercises are centered around the Modular Egress Training Simulator, a pod that resembles the cockpit of a plane or helicopter.

Wearing helmets, flight suits and water shoes, would-be passengers board the pod, which is then lifted up via a crane and lowered into a pool below. From there, supervised teams work together to face various challenges, including escaping from a submerged cockpit, keeping warm in frigid water and the successful boarding of a life raft.

For those truly up for a challenge, Survival Systems can also simulate additional external conditions such as heavy rain, high winds, smoke, fire and the downwash of a helicopter.

But does the simulation actually work? Greg Drab, owner of Advantage Personal Training in Mystic, Connecticut, recently sent four of his staff on a Survival Skills USA course. The experience, he confirmed, was certainly very realistic.

“Last time I took my staff here, two or three backed out. After the second exercise, a couple people had hit their threshold,” he told the paper.

But, he added, “You get to see how people handle stressful situations. This unifies the team.”