From today's NYT. Also all over CNN this morning. Bolds mine.
September 25, 2001
AIRLINE SAFETY
Pilots Will Ask for Permission to Carry Guns
By MATTHEW L. WALD
WASHINGTON, Sept. 24 — The
largest pilots' union will propose on
Tuesday that cockpit crews be permitted to
carry handguns to foil hijackers. The chief of
the Federal Aviation Administration says
that she is open to the idea but that it poses
practical problems.
Officials of the 67,000-member union, the Air Line Pilots Association, said
its president, Duane Woerth, would recommend to a House subcommittee
that pilots be allowed but not required to carry firearms.
Current F.A.A. policy forbids airline crews to carry guns on board. But John
Mazor, a spokesman for the union, said that although the arming of pilots
would be a "radical step," it had overwhelming support from the
membership.
"This is a reflection on how much the attack on Sept. 11 has changed
everything we thought about hijackings and terrorism," Mr. Mazor said.
Mr. Mazor said that under the legislative proposal by the union, pilots who
wanted to participate would be required to undertake extensive training and
psychological testing, ad be subjected to detailed background checks.
Asked about guns in the cockpit, Jane F. Garvey, the F.A.A. administrator,
said: "That's an idea that probably, two weeks ago, I would not even have
considered. Now we are challenging every assumption."
But Ms. Garvey said there were several practical problems. One is that
pilots held in place by their over- the-shoulder harnesses, as required during
takeoff and landing, might not be able to turn far enough around to use a gun.
A second problem, she said, would be what to do if one pilot wanted a gun
in the cockpit and the other did not.
The idea is a stark departure from the traditional approach to airline safety,
which seeks to keep weapons off planes. That concept has been emphasized
all the more since the Sept. 11 attacks. Even cockpit crews, who customarily
keep their luggage with them on trips, have been subjected to close searches
of carry-on baggage. Pilots have complained that nail files and manicure
scissors have been confiscated.
The proposal is also a quick reversal for Mr. Woerth, who told a Senate
committee last Thursday that pilots could not be "Sky King and Wyatt Earp
at the same time."
Some government aviation officials said that introducing a firearm into the
cockpit, even in the hands of a seasoned pilot, could create as many risks as
it eliminated.
"You'd have to have a tremendous amount of screening and training before
I'd ever want to ride as a passenger on an airplane where the pilot was
armed," said a senior crash investigator for the National Transportation
Safety Board. The investigator, a former commercial airline pilot, added,
`Some of these guys are the type that'd be quick to anger without a good
basis for it.`
But many pilots adamantly maintained that they could be entrusted with a
weapon, particularly when they have already been entrusted with the controls
of the aircraft itself.
The push extends beyond pilots of passenger jets to the thousands of pilots
flying jets carrying cargo.
Despite the popular conception that firing a gun in an airplane poses a strong
risk of making the plane crash, aviation experts say that with special bullets,
serious damage to the airplane is unlikely.
The government already covertly places armed guards on select commercial
flights. These sky marshals, experts say, carry ammunition that has a smaller
charge, so the bullet moves more slowly, and that is "frangible," so it breaks
up on impact. Such bullets will break the skin and could kill a person hit in
the eye, say, but would not penetrate the skull, according to the experts.
Further, even if a bullet penetrated an aircraft's aluminum skin, most planes
are designed to prevent any such hole from developing into a tear. And the
hole made by even a large-caliber ordinary lead bullet would not be big
enough to cause decompression; the engines repressurize the cabin faster
than a hole could let air out. Even windows will withstand bullets, experts
say.
"Those windows can take the pointy end of a fire ax swung by a beefy
fireman with all his might," one aviation structures expert said.
Part of the training for sky marshals, however, shows them what parts of a
plane are sensitive and should not be hit.
Seeking to rebuild a jittery public's confidence in the security of air
transportation, Ms. Garvey, the F.A.A. administrator, took a commercial
flight today from Washington to Kennedy International Airport in New York
and shook every hand in sight, thanking pilots, passengers, flight attendants,
ticket agents and sky marshals. She even patted the head of a sniffer dog.
But while planes are flying again, many passengers are not. A United Express
executive who manages the airline's operation at Dulles International Airport
told Ms. Garvey that once flights resumed last week, some 80 percent of
aircraft were flying but that they carried only about 31 percent of capacity,
down by more than half. Arriving in New York, Ms. Garvey heard from Al
Graser, the Port Authority's manager of operations at Kennedy, "Movements
are good, but load factors are horrendous."
Ms. Garvey arrived for a 1:05 p.m. flight from Dulles at about 11:25 a.m. —
not quite with the two hours in advance that her agency now recommends,
but in plenty of time to clear security and then try to build morale at the
airport, which was noticeably quieter than normal.
"Thanks for traveling," she said to five members of a church group from
Virginia Beach, Va., on their way to New York for a flight to Helsinki and
then St. Petersburg, Russia. When she explained who she was, Penny
Crowell, one of the group, said: "I really feel safe. I feel better."
Almost wistfully, Ms. Garvey reminded the group that her problem used to
be air traffic congestion.
"Now it seems like a nice problem to have had," she said.
In New York, Ms. Garvey toured a year-old F.A.A. regional headquarters
in Jamaica, Queens. The building was the first major federal building
completed after the Oklahoma City bombing, and meets the latest bomb
blast standards, agency officials said. |
