Posted on 06/08/2002 1:34:53 AM PDT by patriciaruth
WASHINGTON - Crew members on American Airlines Flight 63, who helped thwart suspected shoe-bomber Richard Reid in December, say they had to overcome a lack of information, a lack of training and the inattention of their supervisors, according to interviews conducted shortly after the incident.
In a 66-minute videotape of the interviews, conducted in January and February by the union that represents American Airlines pilots, five members of the 13-member crew and a Fort Worth dispatcher recounted their improvised response to the drama that played out over the Atlantic for nearly three hours.
Officials at American said much has changed since the interviews were conducted. In cooperation with the Allied Pilots Association, the company says it has formed special safety committees that have interviewed crew members in detail. They said many of the crew's improvisations described on the tape are becoming part of the company's training regime.
"I don't think I would dispute anything they said," Russ Chew, an operations director at American, said Wednesday. "I think we all understand why they felt the way they did. But there were things going on [behind the scenes] they didn't know, and had no way of knowing."
In quiet, matter-of-fact fashion, the crew members - who asked to be identified by only their first names - described their desperate but methodical efforts to secure the bomb, the bomber, the plane and its 183 passengers, even while they searched for possible accomplices they feared might be on board.
With Mr. Reid bound, belted and closely guarded, they said they spent the remainder of the flight investigating his identity, combing overhead bins and lavatories, searching passengers and their belongings and enlisting the cooperation of those on board to help them maintain order.
"It was an evolution of ideas. It was totally unscripted and it just worked," the flight's captain said on the tape, a copy of which was obtained by The Dallas Morning News. The tape, produced by the Allied Pilots Association, is being distributed this week for training purposes to about 11,000 American pilots and about 3,000 pilots with other airlines.
Under indictment
The Dec. 22 Paris-to-Miami flight was diverted to Boston, where Mr. Reid, 28, was delivered to U.S. authorities. He has since been indicted by a federal grand jury, accused of trying to ignite the explosive triacetone triperoxide (TATP) contained in his shoes. Linked by prosecutors to the al-Qaeda terrorist network, he is scheduled for trial in November.
The crew's reserve first officer, Kent, said that after Mr. Reid was subdued, he noticed a cord dangling from the odd-looking pair of shoes at Mr. Reid's feet.
"I asked him if they were his shoes," Kent recalled. "He said, 'Yes.' "
Kent said he carried the shoes into the cockpit of the Boeing 767. "I thought that maybe they contained a hidden knife, or a box-cutter, or may that he was going to use the cord to strangle someone."
He was unaware that the soles were packed with enough explosive material to destroy the aircraft.
Bringing the shoes into the cockpit "was the dumbest thing I've ever done," Kent said. Only when the pilots began to smell the TATP in the cockpit did they realize what they were holding.
"[I realized] This is what he was trying to light," Kent said. "This is now not a shoe and a weapon. This is a bomb. ..."
The drama began almost midway through the scheduled five-hour flight, when a passenger noted a sulfur-like smell emanating from Mr. Reid's seat. One of the flight attendants, saw that Mr. Reid was trying to light something between his legs.
Flight attendant Karen said she grabbed a fire extinguisher, thinking he was trying to set the plane on fire. When she heard another flight attendant scream, she prepared to use it as a weapon.
With the help of Kent, the reserve pilot, several male passengers had lashed Mr. Reid into his seat with belts.
At this point several of the flight attendants began to worry that Mr. Reid's violent outburst was part of diversion, and in light of the hijackings of Sept. 11, Karen grew concerned that Mr. Reid had boarded with accomplices. She and other flight attendants moved toward the lavatories to search and secure them.
Another flight attendant, Lettie, decided to fortify the flight deck, standing guard between two carts she had pushed in front of the cockpit.
With Mr. Reid secure, the search for accomplices took various forms.
"We spent a lot of time trying to figure out who he was," said Hans, the flight captain. Confusion about where Mr. Reid had been sitting caused them to think that he had boarded with a party of four. They soon learned, however, that he had changed seats. And when they re-examined the passenger manifest, they concluded that he must be Richard Reid.
His ticket showed he had paid in cash. A dispatcher tried to identify others who might have purchased similar tickets. His passport - found, then briefly misplaced - showed that it had been issued in England only two weeks before.
A search of his pockets revealed only a few single Turkish and Egyptian bills, a few matches and, other than a small bag in the overhead bin, no luggage or toiletries.
Crew members wondered how Mr. Reid, with so little in his possession, had boarded the plane without raising suspicion. They had no way of knowing that he had been questioned and released by French police after trying to board the same flight the day before. Nor did they realize that American Airlines had paid to lodge Mr. Reid at a Paris hotel for the inconvenience of missing the flight.
Moved by attack
But the memory of Sept. 11 did the most to galvanize cooperation among passengers and crew.
"The participation of the passengers was really enormous," said Karen. "Before [Sept. 11], we always worked to placate people, tried to work with them. But that went out the window. Everyone knows that."
In the two hours before their landing, the crew and passengers agreed on a protocol: Any passenger who moved unnecessarily or unexpectedly would be considered a threat. Kent, the reserve pilot, moved through the plane, talking with small groups of passengers, emphasizing the need for them to stay in their seats. He not only wanted to have personal contact; he was also looking for other potential threats.
"I urged the passengers to get to know their neighbors," Kent said. "And if they were worried about their neighbors, I told them to inform someone from the crew."
The rules developed quickly and were explained over the aircraft intercom in French, Italian and English. They were simple: Do not move about the cabin. Do not even stand up. Do not take anything from the overhead bin unless you have the permission and supervision of a member of the crew. Any passenger needing to use the lavatory must be supervised. And no locking the door once inside.
Meanwhile, Julie, the American dispatcher who had been staying in contact with Flight 63, was told to continue juggling other flights. It was apparent to her, she said, that her supervisors had no appreciation of the difficulties aboard.
"I got the feeling they really didn't know what to do, either," Julie said.
As the jetliner approached the United States, it was intercepted and escorted by two F-15 fighters that were under orders to shoot it down if it posed a threat to a population center.
At one point, Julie said, she was interrupted by a manager as she was speaking with the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), which had deployed the fighter escorts. Because her station was operating short-handed, she said, her supervisor ordered her to get off the phone and pay attention to the other American flights under her control.
"I said, 'It's NORAD.' He said, 'Get a number and call them back.' "
She said she turned the NORAD call over to the supervisor who, in turn, transferred it to another manager. The line to NORAD was kept open.
"That turned out to be a good thing," Julie said.
Mr. Chew, the American official who has investigated Julie's complaint, said she had no way of knowing that an American manager had been talking to Hans, the flight captain. Hans, however, thought he was talking to "another dispatcher."
Mr. Chew said the lack of communication was a problem for everyone.
While Hans and Kent supervised activities in the cabin, Darren, the first officer, flew the plane. And although he was communicating with NORAD through Julie the dispatcher, the F-15 escorts were giving him special concern.
Darren said the flight path into Logan Airport was frighteningly direct: "You head into Boston, directly toward the city, and hook a right." He said he was concerned that the F-15s could misinterpret the sight of a jetliner with a suspected terrorist and a bomb on board heading toward the center of the city.
"With that in mind, it was a good idea to broadcast our intentions to the fighters," Darren said. American officials interviewed Wednesday said they were chagrined by the union's release of the tape. They said they had urged crew members not to disclose details of what happened on the flight for fear that the tape could be used to help defend Mr. Reid in his upcoming trial. Prosecutors in Boston, however, said they have no problem with the video's release.
No objection
"Because of the strong feelings of the pilot association that there was substantial preventive and deterrent value in creating a training video, the U.S. attorney's office did not object to the production of the tape," said Rob Krekorian, the prosecutor's chief of staff.
Kent, the reserve first officer, said he would have been more wary of Mr. Reid's shoes had American made its pilots aware of a warning issued 11 days earlier. On Dec. 11, the Federal Aviation Administration circular warned that "hijackers may attempt to smuggle disassembled weapons on board an airliner by hiding weapon components within their shoes."
"If we had the information [in the FAA security warning], I never would have taken the shoes up to the cockpit," Kent said.
Bob Kudwa, American's vice president of flight operations, said the airline didn't reveal the warning to flight crews because the federal agency limits their circulation of such warnings. He said that the FAA determined that flight crews had no "need to know," and that American has since persuaded the agency to scrap such restrictions.
Not so, said FAA spokeswoman Rebecca Trexler.
"It's not true what American is saying. We send those things [information circulars] out on a need-to-know basis, but we leave it up to the airlines to decide who in their program needs to know the particular information."
American's pilots also were troubled by the company's reluctance to tell other pilots in flight over the Atlantic what was transpiring on Flight 63.
Mr. Kudwa said American pilots in the air would be informed as future incidents take place. "I know they were bothered by that, and we think it's a good idea," he said.
Jane Allen, American vice president for flight services, said much of the information revealed in the tape is already being incorporated into American's flight security and safety. American now provides more and better restraints and better training in creative self-defense. The cabin protocols that evolved during the flight are now part of American's training for its crews. In addition, the crew members will continue to receive counseling and debriefing to help them deal with the trauma.
Said Darren, summing up his own need to tell the story: "Normally, you don't get a chance to debrief a crew after one of these - it usually has a different outcome."
I wonder what, if any, efforts were made on FT. 587.
I do not know whether the pilot made sudden maneuvers after take-off that precipitated the failure of the tail section. If so, it might have been in response to an attempted hijacking or it might have been a practice maneuver without understanding the consequences. Since then pilots have been warned not to practice maneuvers to throw hijackers off their feet due to the stresses they put on the plane.
"An overwhelming majority of airline pilots believe that government agencies empowered by the Aviation and Transportation Security Act of 2001 have thus far failed to act with the appropriate sense of urgency," said Captain Denny Breslin, an American Airlines pilot and member of APA's Committee for Armed Defense of the Cockpit. "We are seeking the right to carry firearms as the ultimate defense against a lethal threat to our aircraft."
APA's Web Site now provides visitors with the ability to affix an electronic signature to a petition calling for the federal government to establish a program to train and certify airline pilots to carry firearms. APA and other pilot groups was to deliver the petition to President Bush on May 2, which coincides with hearings sponsored by Representative John Mica (R-FL), who chairs the House Aviation Subcommittee.
Breslin noted that pilots have become increasingly impatient with what they view as an over-reliance on ineffective passenger screenings, as well as a Federal Air Marshal program that will never produce a sufficient number of marshals for every flight.
"It is time to recognize that pilots vested with the responsibility for multi-million dollar aircraft and hundreds of passengers can likewise be trusted to serve as a critical last line of defense-as well as a valuable first line of deterrence," said Breslin. "Should other defensive measures fail, arming pilots is the best way to deal with the threat of suicidal hijackers, and we are asking for the public's support in this vital effort."
To view APA's petition and add your signature, visit www.alliedpilots.org.
I am hoping that getting airline security out of Democrat Mineta's Transportation Department into the new Department of Homeland Security will shift the political bias on this issue. Most people who are against it never heard of frangible bullets.
And it was an arcing fuel pump fuse that ignited fuel vapor in an empty centerline fuel tank on TWA 800.
And we all know what that could lead to.....
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