Pilot takes 'a personal interest' in flight safety - captain sets the rules in 3-minute speech

Associated Press ^ | July 28, 2002 | a.

[MeekOneGOP]

Pilot takes 'a personal interest' in flight safety

United captain sets the rules in 3-minute speech to his passengers

07/28/2002

Associated Press

CHICAGO - Passengers are usually just settling into their seats when United Airlines Capt. David Miller strides from the cockpit into the cabin. Most don't pay attention at first.

But heads pop up when the pilot introduces himself on the public address system.

"I have a personal interest in getting you where you are going," he says. "But you are intelligent folks. You know that this is not the same type of operation it was before Sept. 11."

In a three-minute speech laced with jokes, Mr. Miller delivers a serious message. He tells passengers to observe flight rules, to refrain from comments that could be misinterpreted as threatening and to never cross the metal strip running along the bottom of the cockpit's safety door.

"That's a demilitarized zone. A part of your body crosses that line, it's mine. You are not going to get it back in the same condition that it crossed that line in," Mr. Miller says.

Passengers usually applaud at the end of his speech, which he has delivered more than a dozen times a month since the terrorist attacks.

His direct appeal to passengers might have been considered over-the-top before Sept. 11. But no more.

Airport security is tighter. And airline employees take offhanded remarks about safety, terrorism and pilot sobriety so seriously that they can lead to arrests or removal of passengers from planes.

Mr. Miller, 53, who had trained with a pilot who died in the attacks, devised his speech to address passengers' concerns.

"I wanted them to feel at ease. I also assured them that I felt comfortable going myself," he said. "Everybody seemed to like the fact that I took the time to talk to them."

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Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dallas/nation/stories/072802dnnatpilot.16286.html

[MeekOneGOP]

I love it! I think it would be great if more pilots did this.

[SevenDaysInMay]

And these air crew should NOT be armed? .45 ACP bump.

[petuniasevan]

[chainsaw]

And these air crew should NOT be armed?

Correct, Bush and many of our reps in congress would rather have an F-16 shoot you down, rather than give the piilot somethiung to protect you with, because they say a .45 is dangerous.

[meenie]

Presidente Bush has not fired his gun-toting Secret Service. His life is worthy of self-defense protection. Do I get a whiff of elitism and hypocrisy here?

[Free the USA]

Index Bump

[SevenDaysInMay]

I want our air crews to be armed because .45's are so dangerous. Say a Glock #30 with 10+1 185 gr. HP at 700 f/s? SAMS and bombs are still threats, but why not solve one major problem?

This Beltway debate has the same foolishness as federal union work rules protection in Homeland Defense. Decades of "gun control" politics crashes and burns if citizens are allowed to carry. An air crew militia?

Nanny state officials share "power" reluctantly.

[Kaslin]

If I am not mistaken although President Bush was arming the pilots with guns he has changed his mind now

[WaterDragon]

Here and there pilots are doing this. I remember reading about another one not long after the massacres. Pilots are special people...gutsy, and they are just as concerned about safety, and think a heck of a lot more about safety, than the passengers.

I think they should be armed. As Thomas Sowell said...guns are a great deterrent to criminals and terrorists.

[elephantlips]

Pilot yes, aircrew, no. We don't guns in the cabin to aid inappropriate individuals. In the cockpit they are totally appropriate. Criminals need control of the plane. Without it, they are limited in what they can do.

[cajungirl]

well,if they fly it they ought to be armed. I have a delicious fantasy of some federal security guy trying to relieve an armed pilot of his nail clippeers..I would love to see the pilot say "go ahead, make my day"

[cpdiii]

The price of 4 good Glocks would have stopped 9-11.

[cynicom]

meenie...

If you are one of the unwashed masses, your life is not worth protecting. We have to stop whining about the elite, after all, the world would end if anything were to happen to them, would'nt it????

[MeekOneGOP]

Yes. And if not a deterrent, then a good defence against them !

[Pistias]

Two dozen people on each plane willing to bleed to death would have, too. But I like the glock idea, though it's rather dangerous to the fuselage and electronics...hell, at least give 'em big knives.