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Pilots seek permission for firearms in cockpit

US airline pilots unions may urge regulators to seal off and arm cockpit crews as a defense against hijackers, labor and industry executives said.

Pilots are mounting "a very big grassroots effort" for Federal Aviation Administration designation as armed air marshals, said Sam Mayer, who represents 9 percent of American Airlines' 11,500 members of the Allied Pilots Association.

"I'm hearing from more and more pilots." Union representatives scheduled a meeting with FAA officials this week to discuss improving cockpit security after terrorists hijacked and crashed four jetliners last Tuesday.

US Attorney General John Ashcroft said FBI agents will be assigned to the FAA to increase the number of flights with an air marshal aboard.

Strengthening cockpit doors and forbidding pilots to come out during flight may be among policy changes requested, aviation safety experts say. Video cameras in the cockpit may be considered, they said.

"Everything's going to be reexamined," said Jim Hall, a former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board and a partner with the Washington law firm Dillon, Hall and Lungers-hausen LLC. "I don't think anything's sacred in regard to our safety procedures. We need to do more for our flight crews."

`Nothing is sacred'

Nineteen hijackers took control of four jetliners, two from the American Airlines unit of AMR Corp, two from UAL Corp's United Airlines.

One American and one United flight each crashed into one of the World Trade Center's twin towers, a second American flight crashed into the Pentagon and another United flight crashed in western Pennsylvania. In all, the attacks killed more than 5,000 people.

Law enforcement officials said the hijackers used small knives and box cutters as weapons to threaten and attack people on the plane.

The FAA has since banned passengers from carrying those items. The hijackers may have made bomb threats, investigators said.

Before the attacks, commercial airline pilots were trained to cooperate, negotiate and fly to where hijackers requested to avoid any harm to passengers and flight attendants.

"You can throw all that out the window if you're talking about guys like we had on those planes last Tuesday," said John Hotard, an AMR spokesman in Fort Worth, Texas.

Arming pilots received a lukewarm response from some security experts, who say properly trained federal agents are a better solution. Any firearm on board an aircraft is potentially hazardous, even in trained hands, said Leo Holden, a Dallas-area private investigator and a former manager in AMR's security division.

"In a crowded, confined space, if a weapon goes off, somebody's going to get hurt," he said.

Sealing the cockpit by putting heavy doors that can't be opened from outside would require pilots to stay at the controls, even if passengers were being killed or tortured, industry executives said. Cockpit doors now are locked. Flight attendants typically have keys and the doors are too lightweight to prevent a forced entry, industry experts said.

"The policy must be made clear that the pilot doesn't come out of the cockpit," said Bill Hendricks, an aviation safety consultant and former accident investigator for the FAA and the NTSB. "Once they lock the door, that's it."

Necessity versus inconvenience

Not all pilots favor the move. On domestic flights in particular, the procedure may prove too onerous and costly, said Brad Bartholomew, a consultant and commercial pilot who tracks airline issues for his firm, the Newfoundland Group.

"It might work on large international flights, but on smaller domestic flights, it might not be practical," he said.

The FAA and the pilots' unions also may discuss an earlier plan to install video cameras in or just outside cockpits.

"Video of anyone attempting to enter the cockpit is extremely important," said Hall, the former chairman of the NTSB, which created the plan.

Pilots opposed it because video surveillance may violate their privacy, particularly in the event of a camera recording a pilot's final moments in the event of a crash, Hall said.

Bartholomew said a more beneficial move would be a camera in the passenger cabin that pilots could view from the cockpit.

"It would give the pilots a heads up, which would allow them to make a better response," he said.

The strongest safeguards against future hijackings will be found on the ground, experts said. The Air Transport Association, a trade group whose members are the major airlines, is calling for the government to take over airport security nationwide.

"The operation of the security system is an important federal obligation," said Dick Doubrava, the ATA's managing director of security. "These are processes that need to be standardized." Holden, the former airline security manager, said airlines typically hire firms that offer the best bid for their services.

"You don't get the best people for the lowest price," he said.

Holden says the government needs to tighten access to secure areas at airports and force the same security checks used on international flights to be adopted domestically.

For example, airlines typically screen passenger lists before an international flight, looking for suspicious activity.

"Most terrorists buy one-way tickets," he said. "They pay cash within 24 hours of a departure."
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