The police officers of the Special Unit and their chiefs train annually for how to react in different situations; the strategy and scenario of such trainings on the ground, lasting for several days, are different every time. In January of this year, 46 police officers in the Special Unit participated in training at Brnik for action against a terrorist hijacking of an airplane.

The scenario entitled Invasion in an airplane predicted an imaginary situation in which an Adria Airways aircraft was hijacked at Jože Pučnik Airport.

Before the training, the police officers were first introduced to the theoretical part of the training at the station. The head of training presented the purpose, objectives, scenario, presumptions and plans for performance of the task. During the training, the majority of police officers had to play the roles of police officers, while some of them were hostages and terrorists.

After receiving the information that terrorists had hijacked the airplane, the heads of the departments in the A unit organised a terrain operation centre (TOC) and the movement to Brnik, where the police officers stationed the "hedgehog", the communications car. The task of the TOC was to distribute all the services participating in the training on the ground.

When all the services (snipers, invasion group, etc.) were at their assigned places, the critical situation began. The airplane door opened and a terrorist threatened a hostage with a knife. At that moment, a sniper intervened by taking a shot, which was the signal for the invasion group to board the plane.

The invasion group evacuated the passengers and searched the plane. An explosive pack was found on a hostage, and therefore a bomb technician needed to be called in.

Logistically, the task was fairly demanding, since it had to be coordinated with Adria Airways, which lent the airplane for this purpose, and other competent authorities had to be informed, among others the Aviation Police Unit.

This year, the police officers of the Special Unit will participate in other trainings and terrain exercises. According to Drago Toporišič, the head of training, the Special Unit does not only intervene in hijackings or terrorist activities, but also in other cases of kidnapping, performed for instance by emigration groups, psychiatric patients, etc.

In the last years, the Unit has been making great efforts to coordinate their procedures, ways of training and equipment with the special units of the Member States of the European Union, thus improving cooperation and particularly the handling of critical situations.