April 19th is special day. Airline pilots will be armed in many cockpits, so what do you think?

 

As long as they are properly trained on when and how to use them I would feel alot safer.

 

Honestly it don't affect my feelings cause i don't fly.However i have read a few articles on this and the pilots must be properly trained before they can carry.That IMO would make me feel safer if i flew.

 

I question why they were not packing heat even before September 11, which this arming thing is apparently a result of. Being my usual cynical self, I ask: Would potential terrorists not find other means to bring down a plane if they knew the cockpit was virtually inaccessible? Using four aircraft simultaneously in a single event does not make suicide bombing-by-plane their new doctrine, unless the terrorists are dumber than bricks. Nowadays, the passengers by themselves would have any bad guys beaten to death in an attempted take-over. I believe this measure of fortification has come far too late (19 months too late, roughly).

 

Am I honestly starting to think we'd all feel alot safer on the plane with a jack-booted goon squad guy greeting boarding passengers, smiling through the ski mask, complete with subgun and requisite low-velocity rounds?
More seriously though, I think it's really more of a PR, feel good kind of thing. It might/could be cheaper than building a real door for the cockpit and they'd probably get to drug test the pilots more often- Everybody's happy!

 

I don't know how I feel about handguns in the cockpit - I think that in a panic situation, there's too much room for error. I think a beanbag shotgun for the initial shot, followed up with a handgun to keep the baddie on the deck is probably the best option.

I definitely agree with Thoseapples - they'll find another way. Everyone does. Face it, from a terrorist point of view, 9/11 was a screaming success that will never be repeated. I think they're going to go back to the simple bomb-the-plane-shortly-after-takeoff routine - it pretty much can't be stopped and still kills a good number of innocents.

My dad was an airline pilot for 30+ years - and he now is a higher-up with a government agency (I don't wanna give too much away - I'm not sure what the policy is.) Anyway, he doesn't like the idea at all (he's not anti-gun either). He and I both agreed that the best policy is to provide the pilots with seperate oxygen tanks, and if somebody's causing a ruckus, then just depressurize the cabin for a minute. Knock everybody out. Go back there, and tie up the troublemaker. Easy enough, nobody gets hurt, and a potential bomber might not get a chance to pull the lever (he'll probably be taking deep breaths because he's got a lot on his mind) And, the most important step of all - DON'T TELL THE NEWS!!! Just tell them that a terrorist was apprehended - don't give away the whole strategy.

Just some thoughts.

XXL

 

Theo,
Would like me to add....

"Am I going to learn how to duck" to the poll ?

Just think .....a choice... when asked where you want to sit on the plane.

Will that be ..Leaded or Un-Leaded ?

 

"I'll Teach You To Return Your Tray To The Upright Position !!!"

 

I think it's a good idea. A large amount of pilots are ex-military pilots and already have firearms training and experience.

Besides, you would trust a pilot to fly you in a plane which basically means that they have your life in their hands, but you wouldn't trust him to have a gun and to use it wisely? I certainly would.

 

I don't know guys. Working at an airport, and having been in numerous cockpits, I can't imagine trying to get out of those seats in a hurry and drawing a weapon at the same time.

If the re-inforced cockpit door doesn't stop the bad guy, how is trying to shoot over your shoulder gonna work?

What's the restriction on calibre? If a .45 or 9mm goes through the aircraft skin at 30,000 feet, so will the guy with the gun, and a .22 isn't going to stop a P'd off terrorist.

I work at an airport, and I think this is a severe case of over-reaction. Air travel remains the safest mode of transportation in the world and the money would be far better spent in training and improving the pre-board screening process.

Any pilots out there care to join in?

Rick

 

You mean like searching an 80 year old grandmother in a wheel chair (my grandmother)? Or a visibly retarded child travelling with his parents (on a flight I was on last month)?

Sorry, I just don't see how that makes me safer.

I do understand why it's done, though. It is done that way to appear to be politically correct. In other words, if they only pulled people of Arab descent out of line for searches, even though that is the ethnicity of the terrorists who attacked our country on 9/11/01, we would not be acting in a "politically correct" manner. Personally, I think it's ridiculous that this isn't done. For example, we were fighting the Japanese during WWII but we didn't kill or imprison Mexicans; they weren't the enemy. Muslim Arab terrorists are our enemy.

Anyway, this is getting off topic but since searches (pre-board screening process; nice "politically correct" term, btw) were brought up, I felt compelled to comment on it.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming...............

 

That's exactly what I'm talking about. Training, equipment and the calibre of the employees. I'm not here to insult anyone, but at my airport, three of the most important areas: airside access, airside pass control, and pre-board screening are all done by contractors who pay minimum wage for part-time help. Where's the incentive to do the job properly?

I don't want to see flak jackets and Uzi's in my Air Terminal Building, but the aviation industry as a whole, and Federal regulators, in particular, need to take a much more proactive approach instead of remaining reactive and playing "catch up", and arming pilots is not proactive, it's false security that borders on stupidity.

Rick

 

why not? every truck driver in the states is already armed...

 

I fly quite a bit and I'm very pro firearms. Having said that I don't feel that having armed pilots makes it any safer to fly. Frankly the only way I'd feel safer while flying is if I was armed.

The 9/11 attacks were very carefully planned and successfully executed by capitalizing on the terrorist's version of "shock and awe" at least that's my opinion based on accounts that I've seen in the media. They grabbed a flight attendant and used him/her to get the pilots out of the cockpit where they killed or disabled them and then used the terror and fear along with the bloody mess to subdue the rest of the passengers & crew. Up until 9/11 it was sort of an unwritten rule that during a hijacking it was best to just cooperate with the hijackers, let them go where they wanted to go and then let the professionals deal with them once they got the plane on the ground. The planners of 9/11 knew this which is why they had their own "pilots".

They really didn't expect to meet significant resistance because if even half a dozen passengers decided to get together and take the plane back they could have. Notice what happened on the flight that went down in Penn. Those passengers knew what the plan was from the cell phone conversations and successfully thwarted it.

I don't believe a repeat of 9/11 is possible today because passengers know they can fight back and won't hesitate to do so. Look at what happened with the "shoe bomber", he was subdued by a single passenger who saw him acting suspiciously.

Like I said, I guess if I was a pilot I'd feel safer now but as a passenger I'm not going to let down my guard just because the pilot's packin' heat. I hope they're at least going to mandate that they use rounds with reduced "shoot through" like Glaser Safety Slugs (great name for a bullet isn't it?)

 

YIKES!!! You are correct about the training, though.