Hawk, could never understand the convoluted logic of the Bush Administration. Would it not be expedient to have better security on the ground than in the air? One cannot have sky marshals and claim progress in the war on terrorism!! BUsh should work towards diminishing the fear factor amongst the general public. Not increase them with the presence of the sky marshals.
Pilots object British sky marshal plan
December 30, 2003
British government plans to put gun-toting sky marshals on airliners hit turbulence today when British Airways and the main pilots' union said it would do "more harm than good" and put passengers at risk.
The British government announced yesterday that plainclothes sky marshals, travelling incognito among passengers, would be placed on selected British airline flights - exactly which ones it did not say - in response to a heightened state of alert in the United States.
"Air marshals will be deployed where appropriate," said a joint statement from Transport Secretary Alistair Darling and Home Secretary David Blunkett.
In Washington, the US Homeland Security Department said today non-US airlines will be told "on a flight by flight basis" whether to put sky marshals on board, as a precondition for entering US airspace.
But a spokeswoman for British Airways, one of the world's biggest air carriers, said: "We have always said we have concerns about having armed people on aircraft."
"We feel it is best to have strong security on the ground and that is where the focus of attention should be," she said. "We have always been of the opinion that if it is not safe to fly then we will not fly."
Another airline spokesman added: "We have reservations about this. If you bring arms on to a plane then you raise the level of danger."
"Introducing a weapon into a cabin could lead to that weapon being used against passengers," he added. "If the level of risk is so high that a sky marshal has to be deployed, then it would be easier to just not operate that particular flight."
The British Air Line Pilots Association (BALPA) said it was never consulted on the measures - the latest in a series introduced in the wake of the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001.
"We cannot agree with the government's decision to put armed guards on aircraft as we believe this will do more harm than good," said BALPA's general secretary Jim McAuslan. "We do not want guns on planes."
Speaking on BBC radio, transport secretary Darling tried to allay the concerns, saying pilots would be informed if there was a sky marshal on their flight.
"The captain of the aircraft would know - for perfectly obvious reasons. He has got to fly the aircraft," he said.
He added that sky marshals were only one of a series of measures being put into place - including improved screening of passengers and baggage - to prevent hijackings.
"It is someone who is there when people have got on to the plane and is intent on trying to take over that plane. It is one of the last lines of defence," he said.
Security in the United States - which employs several hundred sky marshals - was stepped up this past Christmas week after Washington raised the nationwide terrorism alert level from "elevated" to "high" on December 21.
Six Air France flights between Paris and Los Angeles were cancelled on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at the request of US officials, over fears that the planes could be used as weapons against US targets.
French authorities said they had found no evidence to support US suspicions of a holiday attack involving Air France planes.
Yesterday's announcement by the British government followed a British press report - denied by Saudi authorities - that Islamic extremists were planning to attack a British airliner in Riyadh by crashing small planes into it.
British Airways suspended flights to Saudi Arabia in mid-August after the British government warned it had received a serious threat about air travel in the country, but resumed them in September.
Britain's own domestic security level was raised to its penultimate level on the weekend before the November 20 suicide bomb attacks on the British consulate and HSBC bank in Istanbul that left 62 dead and hundreds injured.
Security at London's main Heathrow airport was dramatically increased last February, with more than 400 soldiers deployed, amid fears of a terrorist attempt to shoot down a departing airliner.
This story was found at: smh.com.au |
