There are three types of hostage takers that the average citizen has to worry about: career criminals, terrorists, and mentally unstable people.
In general, career criminals are the least worrisome because they usually take hostages as a way to get away with their crimes. While these people are still dangerous, their motivations are much different from those of terrorists or mentally disturbed people because their main objective is usually not to kill the hostages. On the other hand, terrorists and mentally unstable hostage takers are a totally different ball game. More often than not these people are intent on taking lives, and this type of hostage situation requires a far different approach.
Your first priority is to try and calm your nerves. While this may sound difficult, your best chance of survival comes from immediately trying to calm your nerves. The best way to do this is dig deep and find your reason to live. Think about your kids, your spouse, or something that you know you have to live for and let that mental image be your driving force. Decide that no matter what happens, you will survive for the sake of whatever your reason for living is.
As you start to calm down, determine what type of situation you’re in, and then go into observation mode. Scan the area looking for things like exit points, places to take cover, possible weapons, and anything else you can use to your advantage. At the same time, it’s crucial to start paying attention to your captors. Take note of the following:
If you can make contact with the outside, carefully do it. If you have a cell phone and can get to it without being seen, dial 911 and then hide your phone. Leaving the line open can allow law enforcement to get a better idea of what’s going on inside and can help them formulate a plan.
Some experts recommend hostages give total compliance and wait for the situation to defuse itself. They recommend waiting and letting negotiators do their job. After the September 11th attacks, which made everything ever written about hostage situations obsolete, I think compliance has to be seriously reconsidered.
In today’s world, terrorists aren’t worried about having their demands met. They likely only have one goal in mind: to kill as many people as possible to support their radical ideology. There is no negotiating with this kind of mindset; they’re driven by convictions that cannot be undermined through negotiations. In my opinion, you must always be looking for your opportunity to escape, or if given no other choice, taking the terrorists out.
When confronted by terrorists, or someone who is mentally unstable, and escape is not possible (for example in the case of a hijacked plane), I think fighting back becomes one of the best options you have. Remain calm and look for your opportunity to take the hostage takers out. In this day and age, I really don’t see another option. You either act or you’re going to die.
If police storm in, get down, stay low, and try to take cover. At some point in the hostage situation, where negotiations have broken down or law enforcement believes there is an immediate threat to the hostages’ lives, there’s a good chance police are going to storm in. When this happens, all hell is going to break loose.
Bullets are going to be flying from every direction, smoke is probably going to fill the air, and in a matter of seconds the chaos will be over. The moment you see the police or hear gunshots, hit the ground. If possible, crawl behind a solid structure like a concrete wall and stay low.