Posted on 01/03/2008 8:27:28 AM PST by 3AngelaD
In a recent interview, Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida stated: "The need for guns in the cockpit is just nearly not [sic] as acute as it once was. There are all kind [sic] of screening systems, there is now the reinforced cockpit door, there are air marshals, we now have a lots of checks and balances."...
Arming pilots is not a new idea....airline pilots flew armed in large numbers from the dawn of commercial aviation to 1987 with no record of incident. When the federal government disarmed pilots in 1987, many predicted cockpit takeover attempts — including the late Captain Victor Saracini, who, in horrible irony, was the captain of United flight 175 on September 11, 2001 when his Boeing 767 was hijacked and crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center. It was the disarming of pilots in 1987 that inevitably led to the September 11 cockpit takeovers....
Terrorists know what security experts have long known: There is no such thing as an impenetrable door....
The Federal Air Marshals Service is an important layer of security, but the agency has never been able to cover more than a fraction of domestic flights....
All armed pilots are trained and deputized federal law enforcement officers....
Mr. Nelson tells us that we don't need armed pilots because airport security screening now provides a meaningful layer of protection. Anyone who has been through passenger screening in recent years might wonder what planet the senator is talking about... Some have argued, "The threat we face is now is explosives smuggled on airliners and armed pilots can't stop a bomb." True ...But if terrorist groups are now looking toward explosives as a weapon of choice, is this not evidence that the armed pilot program is working? ...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
What armed pilot program?? How many pilots are now armed?
...airline pilots flew armed in large numbers from the dawn of commercial aviation to 1987 with no record of incident.
So who was the idiot that stopped a successful process? Why wouldn't we want to continue with what was a completely successful process?
If I get arrested by a pilot, is there a 2/3 chance my trip to jail will be delayed?
Gun Nuts at 30,000 Feet? by James Bovard, Posted March 7, 2005
After the pervasive failure of airport security on 9/11, the Air Line Pilots Association sought federal permission for pilots to carry handguns to defeat hijackers...
The Bush administration rejected the request, preferring instead to rely on jet fighters to shoot down hijacked civilian planes. U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta declared on March 4, 2002, “I don’t feel we should have lethal weapons in the cockpit” — as if airplanes themselves were not among the most deadly lethal weapons.
Congress eventually trumped the administration, passing a law in September 2002 to create a program to train pilots to use firearms to defend their planes. (The Transportation Security Administration — TSA — effectively buried the program with red tape, ensuring that only 48 pilots would be permitted to carry guns in early 2003.) ......
Yes, extremely encouraging!!! </sarcasm>
That particular warm, cozy feeling works for me. I want those pilots armed to the teeth. I have never felt so safe, warm and cozy as the day I flew into DC sitting next to a big, strapping, fit, apparently armed guy, ex-military, who I am convinced was an air marshall.
Mineta is an idiot. I cannot believe that, of all people in this country, Bush put Mr. Politically Correct in charge of airline safety. We are still paying the price for his folly.
It’s a lot cheaper to train and equip pilots than to hire/train/equip a bunch of air marshals.
But then, again, I'm using logic in an Alice-in-Wonderland world.
the more armed on board with a mission and reason to deter the better. The more uncertain hijackers are as to who and how many are armed the better.
Arm the pilots and the passengers who choose to carry a concealed weapon.
—yeah—that was an example of “reaching out” in a spirit of bi-partisan cooperation-—(sarc)—
I have to ask the dunderheads in D.C. this one thing...
What are they afraid of???
The fact that an armed pilot might fly off the handle, get up exit the flight deck, draw his firearm and start shooting passengers and crew...
Or just take control of the plane they are flyng and simply crash it...
It certainly worked for those guys on Sept 11th...
But hey, I am just stating the obvious...
I don’t know a damn thing about any of this.../sarc
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/23/AR2007012301529.html
There are more legally armed pilots in cockpits than there are air marshalls flying.
There’s no shortage of big, fit, ex-military guys flying into DC these days. I’ve frequently seen much the same on flights into Reagan.
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