Posted on 02/25/2003 3:39:35 AM PST by kattracks
Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - Airline pilots supporting the law that allows them to carry guns to defend against potential terrorist hijackings said Monday they are "shocked beyond belief" that federal aviation security officials have publicly revealed weaknesses in the Bush administration's plan to implement the law.
As CNSNews.com previously reported, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) acknowledged Friday that pilots who participate in the program will only be allowed ready access to their guns when they are inside the cockpit with the door locked.
"The jurisdiction of use of the weapon is in the cockpit and the cockpit only," explained TSA spokeswoman Heather Rosenker. "The weapon needs to be re-secured in the locked box if the cockpit door opens."
Capt. Tracy Price, a commercial passenger airline pilot and chairman of the Airline Pilots Security Alliance (APSA), was livid upon learning that the TSA had disclosed the vulnerability.
"[T]he TSA is advertising that to would be terrorists and telling them and pointing out to them that the best opportunity that they will have to take over the cockpit is just then, when the cockpit door is open because they know that the weapon will not be accessible to the pilot," Price said.
The disclosure caused Price to "seriously question the TSA's motives" for allowing the information to be made public.
"Are they truly concerned about airline security, or are they concerned about building their own empire?" he asked. "If they had a serious concern with airline security, they would have never let that information out like they did. We're shocked beyond belief."
TSA has justified the decision based on its interpretation of the legislation that mandated the arming of qualified commercial airline pilots. The law calls for the creation of a "Federal Flight Deck Officer Program."
"They are called 'Federal Flight Deck Officers,'" Rosenker explained. "If somebody tries to intervene into the cockpit of that aircraft, they have the right to use their weapon."
Asked if there were no other circumstance, under which a pilot would be justified in using the weapon, she replied, "That's correct." Rosenker acknowledged that the regulation would include times during flights when one of the pilots leaves the cockpit to use the restroom or get food.
Price rejected Rosenker's explanation.
"We agree that our jurisdiction is strictly in the cockpit," Price acknowledged. "Just because we don't have federal law enforcement officer jurisdiction and liability protection when we're carrying the firearm to and from our homes, doesn't mean we're not authorized to carry the firearm."
The Homeland Security Act of 2002, which created the Department of Homeland Security and mandated that TSA create the armed pilots' program, supports Price's claim. Section 1402 (f) of the law states that: "Notwithstanding any other provision of federal or state law, a federal flight deck officer, whenever necessary to participate in the program, may carry a firearm in any state and from one state to another state."
The law also states that: "In consultation with the Secretary of State, the Under Secretary may take such action as may be necessary to ensure that a Federal flight deck officer may carry a firearm in a foreign country whenever necessary to participate in the program."
Price believes TSA's narrow interpretation of the statute and their public disclosure of that information amounts to a serious threat to the safety of pilots.
"It's a massive, huge hole and it's a huge problem, and it's something we had hoped and everyone had agreed, we thought, that it would be something that we wouldn't let out," Price explained.
Cargo Planes Vulnerable Due to Exclusion from Program
But the firearm storage and transportation requirements are not the only problem that pilots have with the federal flight deck officer program, as Price explained.
"At the 11th hour, cargo pilots were removed from the legislation that authorizes pilots to be armed, and they were removed by simply inserting the word 'passenger' before the word 'airline,' so passenger airline pilots only are the ones that are authorized to carry firearms," Price said. "We've got serious, grave concerns about that because cargo pilots have at least as strong a requirement for being armed, or maybe even stronger than passenger airline pilots."
There are a number of differences between passenger and cargo airliners that Price believes support his argument, including:
- Cargo planes never have Federal Air Marshals on board;
- Cockpit doors of cargo planes have not been retrofitted to make them
stronger, some cargo planes have no cockpit doors at all;
- Stowaways on cargo flights are not as rare as the public might imagine;
- Cargo ramp areas are not as secure as passenger ramps; and
- Thousands of people, many of whom are unknown to one another, work on
cargo ramps during nightly sorting of cargo, creating a ready opportunity for
terrorists to stowaway on a cargo flight.
"The airplanes are ... as big as passenger airliners and they're carrying very, very large quantities of fuel," Price elaborated. "So it's a very attractive target, it's a very soft target - as far as a terrorist would be concerned - and it will do just as much damage crashing into a building as a passenger airliner."
APSA believes the exclusion of cargo pilots should be removed from the law and they have already found support in Congress.
House Transportation Committee Chairman Don Young (R-Alaska) and Aviation Subcommittee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) have introduced a bill, (H.R. 765), to allow cargo pilots to participate in the federal flight deck officer program. The legislation simply removes the word "passenger" from in front of the word "airline" throughout the relevant sections of the law.
"America's airline pilots - both commercial and cargo pilots - know best that they can both control their aircraft and defend their cockpits when necessary," Mica said while introducing the legislation. "They have asked for the ability to defend themselves and their aircraft from terrorist attacks.
"Cargo pilots often carry passengers on flights and fly some of our largest aircraft like 747s," he added. "Our legislation will increase aviation security by closing the loophole that excluded thousands of qualified cargo pilots from protecting their aircraft from terrorist takeovers."
Young agreed.
"We've already passed legislation allowing 60,000 commercial airline pilots to seek qualification for this program," he said. "It's time we allow cargo pilots to have the same protections for their aircraft."
Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), a licensed pilot and ranking minority member of the Aviation Subcommittee, is also an original cosponsor of the bill. The proposal has been sent to Mica's committee for consideration.
E-mail a news tip to Jeff Johnson.
Send a Letter to the Editor about this article.
"Lock up the pistol, Captain, Mohammad Achmed al-Moron just kicked the cockpit door open!"
With public "servants" like Heather Rosenker, who needs enemies?
I must take issue with this. This guy is quite effective - just in a malevolent manner!
Do any bureaucrats even think anymore? Geez. Maybe they can provide cockpit schematics and keys/combos for the gun lockers directly to Al Qaeda and save us all the heartburn.
What really cracks me up is all the contortions these morons are going through to ensure that no "whacko pilots" use the guns to inflict harm on innocent passengers. It apparently never occurs to these Einsteins that such a pilot could simply steer the aircraft into the ground while the other pilot's on a potty break (a la Egyptair).
Dumbass, imbred nation is as dumbass, imbred nation does.
They're only concerned about building their own empire, of course!
It will be an empire that commands a patronage army 72,000 strong that were hired according to Mega-'affirmative action' guidelines on steroids and that feels it owes its jobs to Liberal Democrats and RINOs.
Gender, race, color, ethnicity and sexual persuasion are almost the most important criteria for an applicant to the TSA, if not the most.
Applicants for jobs with TSA are not informed of their test scores and cannot request that information.
Applicants for jobs with TSA are not given a placement number that will give them any idea of the order in which they will be called.
The date you applied and were accepted for placement on the 'Ready List' appear to mean as little as your test scores and, as mentioned before, much less than your gender or skin color.
"Although whites make up 77.9 percent of the workforce nationally, only 58 percent of TSA's workforce is white."
Or, will ever be allowed to be more than 58% white, under any circumstances, the way things are going! LOL!
That's what's important to George Bush and his 'New TSA'!
Reverse discrimination is Job #1 at the 'New TSA'!
Woo Hoo, help is on the way!
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