Stage a Plane Crash for Team-Building. Seriously.

2 min read

Apr 21, 2017

team-building

Nothing bonds people like cheating death together, right? The intensity of overcoming terrifying odds and surviving disaster can’t help but foster deep and profound connections. That’s the idea, anyway, behind a new leadership and team-building curriculum being offered by Survival Systems USA. The danger isn’t real, but the bonding could well be.

It’s a new twist for a company that provides safety and survival education, with staff experts offering “post-incident” survival training. According to its website, “whether it’s an aircraft ditched in coastal waters, vessel abandonment in the open ocean, or a motor vehicle submerged, we teach you the skills you need to perform surface abandonment, underwater egress, and to survive in an inhospitable environment, land and sea, with limited resources until rescued.” The company’s clients have included the New York Police Department, the FBI, Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, the DEA, the Army, and the National Guard.

“We’ve seen residual effects along the way: improved morale, self-esteem, capabilities people didn’t know they had,” company president Maria C. Hanna told the New York Times, adding that until recently, “we’ve never stopped long enough to say, ‘You know, this is something that can appeal to a market in a different way, using the tools from aviation to help people develop themselves.’” The new team-building course is a natural progression for the company.