Pilots threaten to stop service if kept unarmed

Union Leader ^ | 10/05/01 | KATHRYN MARCHOCKI

[Scott from the Left Coast]

Good for them. I don't generally like union work stoppages, but I'm wholeheartedly behind this one.

[Skibane]

Added to bang_list. (Click HERE to show most gun-related articles recently posted on FreeRepublic.com.)

[jimkress]

bttt

[Arkinsaw]

Senator Gephardt....care to repeat that comment for the pilots union?

[JeepInMazar]

BANG!

[Torie]

I don't generally like union work stoppages, but I'm wholeheartedly behind this one.

I think they should be fired if they refuse to fly. Who elected them to make these policy decisions? They are 10 folks who would be eager to take the place of each of them, sans guns unless and until the public square deemed it prudent.

[B4Ranch]

They've got my backing! Senators Reid and Ensign will get faxes in 10 minutes.

[randog]

But, but...if we arm pilots, we'll have to arm bus drivers, then the cab drivers and pizza delivery guys. Before you know it, we'll have an armed citizenry! We can't do that--why, it's downright CONSTITUTIONAL!!

[Skibane]

As one pilot pointed out to me last week, there are no air marshalls on cargo aircraft. Even so, many of these planes are just as vulnerable to hijacking as the passenger flights — perhaps even more so, since there are no passengers to thwart a hijack attempt. Apparently, many of these planes have pressurized cargo compartments, making stowaways a possibility. On these flights, an armed flight crew is the first, last, and only line of defense.

[Hillary 666]

There's a whole lot of anti-gunners who don't dig what the pilots have to say about this. Bummer!!

[Scott from the Left Coast]

If I had a life and death issue at my workplace, I think I'd want a say in its resolution as well. No one elected them, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't primarily involved in issues of their working conditions -- especially life and death issues.

[RickGee]

But... but this was all settled in a few rooms in Washington D.C.
These guys must think they are still in a free country or something!

[Bob Evans]

bang!

[Dick Bachert]

ABOUT DAMN TIME.

Every Freeper needs to contact his/her congresscritter to keep this moving.

If they won't do this on their own, let's make 'em a deal they can't refuse.

9-11 DIDN'T HAVE TO HAPPEN -- DAMN IT!

[Alberta's Child]

Well, you can bet that if airline pilots' unions stage large-scale job actions or everyone calls in sick for a few days, there won't be too many airlines left anyway.

And if they try to fly these planes with replacement pilots, I'm sure there won't be too many people flying with them.

[Fred]

My choice for cockpit protection

[Freedom'sWorthIt]

For once, I agree with a Union! Go, Pilots, Go!

But, it seems to me, that somehow in all our high techiness - America should be able to figure out a surefire way to de-activate any hijacker who makes a threatening move. Surely we can come up with sensors that when set off automatically seek out and find someone using violence - and somehow visitng that someone with some kind of high voltage shock or perhaps very high pitched sound - or both.

[vbmoneyspender]

When did you go off of the deep end! You're prepared to have passenger jets shot down by our fighters if terrorists gain control of the jets, but you don't think it is justified for the pilots to constitute a last line of defense in the cockpits before a jet is shot down.

What you just said doesn't make sense. And I have to say I am surprised cuz usually you make sense. The whole point of this is that we shouldn't act like victims. And to rely solely on Air Marshals for the defense of passenger jets is a recipe for victimhood.

[vbmoneyspender]

Just a question Torie, but do you own any guns?