Rejected For Guns, Pilots Criticize Test

The Washington Times ^ | February 5, 2004 | Audrey Hudson

[Travis McGee]

Pilots already trained to carry guns and operate sophisticated weapons systems are among 100 applicants rejected from a federal program to arm flight-deck officers to protect aircraft from terrorist attacks.

Former police officers, firearms instructors and military pilots have filed written complaints with the Federal Flight Deck Officers (FFDO) program questioning its psychological- and background-test system, as well as its generic rejection letter that doesn't explain an applicant's purported shortcomings.

[Travis McGee]

Why is Moron Mineta still working for the govt?

[Travis McGee]

BANG!

[goldstategop]

The TSA gun banners believe its dangerous to trust pilots to defend the safety of the friendly skies with their own side arms.

[Travis McGee]

They prefer to trust government-employed F-16 pilots in the federal chain of command to shoot down hijacked airliners with missiles.

It's a control thing.

[goldstategop]

Exactly. We can't have civilian loose cannons out there. American airspace would become a Wild West shooting gallery and the passengers would be sitting ducks in the event of an exchange of fire between airline pilots of terrorists attempting to take over control of the plane.

[Swordmaker]

"You can't federalize the pilots they would like federalized in nine months, but we are working very hard," Mr. Melendez said.

What in the hell is "federalize" in this usage????

Federalize

\Fed"er*al*ize\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Federalized; p. pr. & vb. n. Federalizing.] [Cf. F. f['e]d['e]raliser.] To unite in compact, as different States; to confederate for political purposes; to unite by or under the Federal Constitution. --Barlow.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MIC

Hmmmm... don't see an appropriate definition. NO WONDER the can't get the pilots armed... they don't know what they are doing!

[LibWhacker]

. . . the psychological evaluation assumes all pilots are "drunken wife-beaters.

And what if they were? Has nothing to do with their ability to prevent a hijacking.

Infuriating that a bunch of liberal weenies at an insignificant agency can obstruct the will of the executive and legislative branches. Someone needs to grab them by the throat and snarl in their ear that their agency can be swept away like dust if need be.

[Iwo Jima]

To a TSA psychologist it must be a simple matter. 1) You aren't fit to carry a gun if you're crazy. 2) If you want to carry a gun, you must be crazy. 3) If you want to carry a gun you are not fit to carry a gun.

Pretty simple "logic" when you think like they do.

[Viking2002]

Our bureaucracy is a bloated, broken mess. If I'm in a steel tube, five miles up and going 600 MPH, the last concern I'm going to have with the pilot is if he's got a gun under his arm. He already has the capability to take me out. Mineta should have been shown the door three years ago.

[BykrBayb]

One pilot, a retired Air Force colonel and fighter wing commander responsible for multimillion-dollar jet fighters, said he was allowed to carry his pistol aboard military aircraft.

Well, he would clearly have to be disqualified. A retired Air Force colonel would almost certainly be patriotic, and take the protection of his country and his passengers seriously. If terrorists tried to hijack the plane, and the only way to stop them was to shoot them, this guy would probably actually do that! Letting pacifists carry guns in order to comply with some silly law is one thing, but to take the risk that someone will actually use the gun for it's intended purpose?! And forget trying to retrain this guy to understand the quota system. Do you think for one minute you could convince this guy that for every Muslim man he shoots he should shoot two little old white ladies and a Jew? Nope, this guy is untrainable. Next!

[Pontiac]

Mr. Mackett and several pilots say officers are abandoning the program because of rules that require them to carry guns in lockboxes at all times instead of in shoulder holsters, and the weapons cannot be accessed until they are behind reinforced cockpit doors. They say the procedures make the flight deck vulnerable to attack every time the cockpit door is open.

This can only make sense to a bureaucrat.

When does the gun have to be locked up in a box?

When the cockpit door is open and the cockpit is most vulnerable to terrorist.

[Kozak]

"Yet a TSA psychologist has determined I am unreliable to carry a weapon in my own airliner."

Now let me get this straight. He IS qualified to fly the hundreds of passengers in the multi million dollar flying WMD. He's NOT qualified to carry a pistol on board same? Is that correct? Anything wrong with this picture?

[Pontiac]

. . . the psychological evaluation assumes all pilots are "drunken wife-beaters

I wonder if the same screening process is used for Flight Marshals, ATF agents, FBI agents and IRS investigators, you know all of those Federal officers of the law who carry guns in case we peasants with pitch forks get uppity.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

TSA spokesman Nico Melendez said the program's psychological- and background-test system "is the most fair kind of system that we could put in place to qualify as many as possible."

If you are qualified to fly an airliner over a city, you are psychologically qualified to carry a gun--just about anywhere. If you are not psychologically qualified to carry a gun on an airliner, you are not qualified to fly the airliner.

And if you are not smart enough to see that, you certainly aren't qualified for authority in the government.

[snopercod]

The U.S. Constitution, and the common sense of the American people demanded that pilots be armed. Congress passed a law directing that pilots be armed.

But our president - who has opposed this all along - has violated his Oath of Office by not faithfully executing the law of the land.

[Aeronaut]

Ping to the G.A. list.

General Aviation Ping list. FReep mail me if you want on or off this list.

[DainBramage]

Have to say though, I know an American Airlines Captain, ex military pilot, who just switched from being "Sir" to being "ma'am".

I just can't believe they allow people that unstable mentally to fly planes loaded with 400 souls in the first place, much less carry a weapon of any sort.

[B4Ranch]

You probably hit the bell. They asked what would you do if someone attempted to force his way into the cockpit. When he said, shoot the bugger, they disqualified him for not warning the hijacker FIRST that he was about to be shot after three warnings.

[SauronOfMordor]

I wonder if the same screening process is used for Flight Marshals, ATF agents, FBI agents and IRS investigators, you know all of those Federal officers of the law who carry guns in case we peasants with pitch forks get uppity.

Considering that Federal law-enforcement officers get to carry in-flight on airliners, this is a very relevant question

[RogueIsland]

If you are not psychologically qualified to carry a gun on an airliner, you are not qualified to fly the airliner.

That pretty much sums up this nonsense in one sentence. I mean, these people are trained to react coolly and professionally in a life-threatening crisis. They are exactly the kind of people we should be encouraging to be armed in every phase of life!