DC-10 Captain, a Police Officer, Talks Straight

Fraternal Brothers and Sisters, My name is John Burnett. I am a DC-10 Captain for FedEx. I am also a Police Officer for the Memphis Police Department.

My purpose in writing this is to share some of my thoughts regarding actions a pilot might consider when faced with a modern-day hijacker. These thoughts are outside-the-box when it comes to the way we've all been trained. Neither the FAA or our companies will suggest any of these techniques or implement them as a part of our normal training cycles. They couldn't for fear of lawsuits. I am distributing this via e-mail to buddies I've flown with. I'm asking them to send it to their circle of friends within the industry, and for you to send it to yours. I know most of us have e-mail, and I hope this reaches the next to face the horror of some religious fanatic onboard.

We have all had training in what to do in case of a hijacking; try to keep the hijacker calm, make him think you're doing what he wants, take him where ever he wants to go, etc., etc., etc. Save your passengers, your crew, and your aircraft. In an emergency, you will revert to that training. When our unfortunate peers were faced with the screams of the Flight Attendants and hijacker's demands to open the cockpit door, their training probably made them open the door. When the fanatics made demands, their training told them to comply as best they could. I can only wonder what their thoughts were as they left the cockpit and were tied up in the back of the plane; what they thought as they descended over New York. I hope the fanatics had to kill them in their seats and drag their dead bodies out of the cockpit. But, I bet they did as they were trained to do.

As you look back over recent hijackings, FedEx, Egypt Air, and now the September 11th hijackings, you see a perpetrator who, for one reason or another wants to take over the airplane and kill himself. Each of these hijackers, except for the FedEx incident, were successful. They took over the airplane and killed everyone onboard. If you're following the news programs today, you hear a lot about how we could let these hijackers learn to fly. You would think if knowing how to fly would guarantee a successful hijacking, Auburn Calloway (the FedEx hijacker) would have been a hijacker success story. He was a Navy pilot, a martial arts student, a fellow FedEx crewmember, and he took all the weapons he needed: hammers, knives and a spear gun. He didn't have to overcome any Flight Attendants or demand they open the cockpit door. He just went back to his bag, took out his hammer came back into the cockpit and started crushing skulls. The crewmembers on that flight didn't worry about Flight Attendants, they didn't worry about passengers. All three pilots left the cockpit and fought a hand-to-hand, life-or-death battle. To survive today's hijacker, you cannot worry about your passengers; you cannot worry about your Flight Attendants. You must develop a mind-set that everyone onboard, including yourself, is already dead. Because, if the hijacker is successful in taking over your airplane, not only you, your crew, your passengers and your aircraft are lost, but thousands on the ground are at risk.

One of the reasons the FedEx crew survived, is the extraordinary actions of the copilot. Although he had brain injury, the copilot took the DC-10 and immediately executed a half-roll. This maneuver took the hijacker off his feet as the Captain and S/O were struggling with him. During a point in the maneuver, the hijacker, Captain and S/O were thrown back behind the cockpit door. When he righted the airplane, the F/O then left his seat and joined the fight in the galley area of the plane. It was only after the Captain determined the hijacker was subdued, he returned to the cockpit and flew the airplane to landing.

Very few of us have had to confront true evil. Fewer still have seriously considered taking the life of another human being. I believe this is the reason the FedEx crew did not kill their attacker. The crew's heroism that day is beyond belief and any action that leads to a safe landing and recovery cannot be argued with. But, when the Captain left the F/O and S/O, thinking the situation was under control, he was mistaken. The F/O and S/O had sustained serious, life-threatening injuries. The hijacker had not. As the Captain flew the aircraft, the hijacker, who had surrendered, began the fight anew. As the airplane landed, the hijacker was just moments away from overcoming the two crewmembers. I mention this for your consideration. I would suggest that you make the conscious decision to kill anyone who tries to take your airplane from you.

Today we are at war. The hijacker who comes through your cockpit door is going to kill you and everyone onboard. So, how do you do that? What weapons are available to us as pilots?

Command that all men come forward and fight the hijackers. You have many able-bodied men onboard. They are sitting in shock not knowing what to do. Command they come forward and help you kill your attackers. And, they will come.

Get the hijackers off their feet. Go into an immediate dive to float them to the ceiling. Then execute a 6G positive maneuver and hope they hit their head or break their back as they hit the floor, galley shelf, etc.

If you loose the battle, at least the airplane won't be used as a guided missile on a kamikaze mission. With luck, maybe these guys didn't learn how to do an in-flight restart. Then leave the cockpit, all of you, and kill your attackers. Don't believe it when they surrender. Don't be nice to them. KILL THEM.

If your airplane has one, the Captain might consider making sure it's loaded and secured next to his bag. I can think of nothing more satisfying than watching a ball of burning phosphorous embedded into a fanatic's gut, burning its way through him.

I would suggest you have your copilot take it from it's holder and secure it next to him so he has it immediately available. Makes an excellent skull crusher.

The FAA use to require a 2 cell. A 3 cell Mag-Light makes an excellent weapon. If your maneuvers have the hijackers on the floor writhing in pain, crush their skulls with it.

Drive it into an attacker's eye, ear, throat, or into the area just under the jaw bone. That's a particular interesting place to drive it, because when he opens his mouth to scream, you can read Hyatt sticking there.

Drive your fingers into his eyes and try to feel your fingernails scrape the back of his eye sockets. Scoop the eyeballs out. It will confuse the hell out of him when he finds himself looking at his shoes as they dangle there on the ocular nerves.

Remember Hannabal Lecter. Eat a nose, a cheek, or a finger. And keep eating. Attack with all viciousness. A piranha is a small fish, but it's greatly feared. A hijacker is not expecting you to eat him and it might make him forget why he got on your airplane to begin with. It will, at least, impress his buddies.

Now here's my wish-list of things the FAA could do to help, especially in this time of war.

The battle is not going to require any long shots and a small revolver would be a good choice. It would hold off the attackers long enough for you to disable your aircraft. If the attackers claimed the red package they were holding was a bomb, I'd shoot out the door glass and hope the door would be ripped out and the hijacker and his package would be sucked out. And hey, if I got sucked out with him, I'd try to fly myself to the hijacker look in his face and laugh at him all the way to the ground.

Donut shops use to be a favorite target for robbers, until they started giving donuts to the Police. Robbers don't rob donut shops anymore. I would suggest each Police Department send the FAA a list of the best shots on the department and those guys and their guns would be welcome on my airplane. Fill every vacant seat with armed Police, give them a donut, and tell them to shoot anyone who gives your Flight Attendant any shit.

Make it public. Tell the public they're welcome to bring their pocket knives onboard. Then everyone will bring them. When you make your intercom call for help, you'll have a dozen or more knife wielding helpers trying to make sure their new Gerber tastes fanatics blood. There are even a few of them who'd want to keep ears as souvenirs.

Law enforcement agencies are all aware there are copy-cat criminals and fanatics. We have a number of loony fanatical hate-groups here in the USA: ALF, PETA, KKK, Army of God, Anti-abortionists, and the list goes on. It doesn't matter the size of your airplane. Right now, as I write this, there is an anti-abortionist escapee here in the Memphis area. He's seen what happened at the World Trade Center. A small commuter plane would do a great job on an abortion clinic, or on an animal research facility, or on a local synagogue, mosque, etc., etc., etc. None of us is immune. Take some time and consider your actions if this event should ever happen to you.

My only suggestion would be that at the beginning of each flight the captain should tell the passengers that in the event of hijacking he is ordering every passenger to make every effort to kill the hijacker by any means necessary

Actually, I disagree. The hijacker(s) should be attacked until they stop resisting. If they're still alive at such point, belts can be used to restrain them. By killing them, you give them the martyrdom they want. By keeping them alive, they may be able to sing for an interrogator.

Having them dead may be satisfying but alive they're of much greater intelligence value.

Having them dead may be satisfying but alive they're of much greater intelligence value.

Do we need a "brig" on each aircraft to keep prisoners alive until they are interogated?

"How about allowing law-abiding citizens who can pass a shooting accuracy test (3 yard shots) to conceal carry. Instruct them to "Israeli-style" carry (no round in the chamber)."

For some reason, our government is more afraid of the idea of the good citizens of this country being armed than just about anything else. Allowing people to actually arm and protect themselves is even more unthinkable than the idea of Arab terrorists flying airliners into office buildings. I don't understand it. What do our masters in D.C. have planned for us that requires that we first be disarmed?

Previously posted here:

On Stopping Skyjackings

This isn't the posting police. I just thought people might be interested in yesterdays comments on this piece.

I am in no way shape or form, critiquing the passengers on any of these planes. I was not there and can only imagine the sense of terror that must have filled them all. I certainly may not understand the entire situation, but, given a few moments to collect my thoughts, I would be willing to take the leather belt I wear every day, with a moderately heavy buckle, against a box-cutter wielding perp. Swung visciously and deliberately, it is a very effective improvised weapon which achieves stand off outside the reach of a hand-held knife.

We will not allow them to take over this plane. I find it interesting that the US Constitution begins with the words "We, the people"--that's who we are, THE people and we will not be defeated. With that, the passengers on the plane all began to applaud, people had tears in their eyes, and we began the trip toward the

Here's a vote that that every Captain on every flight say that to his passengers after the doors are closed.

Damn, I wish I could cook up a reason to fly tomorrow.

Anyone want to make book on whether Rush grabs this for Monday?

Before I started this thread I did a search for "DC-10" and "FedEx" and "Memphis". No posts were found. Short of reading every thread on FR - a huge task for those of us with other business to attend to, we must rely on the search function which, in turn, relies on titles and keywords. If I had found the other thread, I would not have posted this one. I should have read more and searched for "skyjack" too. Oh well. Thanks for the link.

Interesting......and impractical. Events that passengers find frightening freeze them. The course of action against a hijacker is to whisper to those seated nearby...Marines? Vets?......you'll find some who have been in the grinder and will react once they know others are with them.

Zero G's maneuver works well as long as everyone else is strapped in. Fun to watch too.

I remember recently a retired cop took on a perp in a commercial plane. None of the young boys would help. He found a marine captain sitting next to him to help. They both were in their 60’s or 70’s ?

The cops wife did not even look up from her book. She knew how it would end up.

She was not sure how the book would end up.

Would a dramatic pitch ( up or down ) or dramatic change of bank angle dump everyone in not strapped in ?

You might get some unset tourists and empty out the over head storage....

It would be fun to take the terrorists off their feet ? Who then could be attacked.

I was seated at my posit once when we went through evasive maneuvers to avoid a SAM. Strapped down of course....but all of our coffee cups and everything else on the console lifted off to the overhead. We would have too had it not been for the belts.

I'm a Michael Crichton fan....his book Airframe will give you a good idea of what can happen in an aircraft during violent maneuvers. A good read too.

Fasten your seat belt and hold on to your lunch.

IMO, the hijacker who comes through your cockpit door has already had to kill everyone onboard.

Passengers will never again be “passive”. “Let’s roll!”

Not at all. But in the event something happened, a good half dozen whacks upside the head with a coffee decanter will calm him down enough that he can be tied up with 15 or 20 seat belts.
This pilot has an attitude... an attitude that we need, that has been forgotten in the metrosexual revolution crap.

If some crazy turd stands up in a plane (or on the subway, or in a McDonalds, or any dam where else), it’s time we act like men, stand up, and basically say “Yo mama Dude!!” or whatever the equivalent is for muslim fanatics.

39 posted on 07/01/2007 7:40:27 PM PDT by djf (Bush's legacy: Way more worried about Iraqs borders than our own!!! A once great nation... sad...)

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