In FBI training scenario, hijacker takes hostages on jet at KC’s Downtown Airport

In an FBI training scenario, a gunman appeared with a hostage at the doorway of a passenger jet at Kansas City’s Wheeler Downtown Airport Thursday afternoon.

The pretend hostage taker waved a handgun around before disappearing inside the TWA Wings of Pride MD-83 plane.

Potentially a scary proposition, this was merely a bit of aviation-based counter-terrorism training for FBI and Kansas City police tactical teams.

Being able to use an actual passenger plane was a fantastic opportunity for both agencies, said Darrin Jones, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Kansas City Division. The plane is owned by TriStar Experience, which uses jet aircraft for educational and experiential programs.

“As you can imagine, this is not an easy environment to replicate in a very realistic way,” Jones said.

The exercises, Jones said, were about more than just the tactical response.

“The most important thing today is the ability to exercise together,” he said. “There are a lot of pieces to these type of scenarios that people don’t see.”

That includes negotiators, tactical teams and airport personnel trying to resolve the situation as quickly and safely as possible.

The training was not in response to any specific intelligence or threat, Jones said. Rather, it was maintaining vigilance and the ability to react when necessary.

“This is an exercise,” he said. “But we have to continually exercise our capabilities because when the intelligence doesn’t work and the investigations don’t work and we do have to respond and react, then we we have to be ready.

“We always have to be ready because we don’t know when these things are going to happen.”

This story was originally published August 30, 2018 at 4:21 PM.