Right on Baha. Box cutters are old news. The chances of anybody on-board bringing down an airliner with them are smaller if not zero. I'm all in favour of air marshals where the risk level demands it (after all El Al makes good use of them). The bad guys shouldn't even have the chance to get near the cockpit. Pilots are trained flyers, not trained marksmen; and if they miss, the bad guy gets the next shot (or lunge, or slice). You can pick air marshals based on, among other things, marksmanship. But you always want to pick pilots on flying skills. And as you say, the bad guys are looking at other ways now. Shoulder-launched missiles have always scared me because they can operate from well beyond the security perimeter of any airfield, making detection and control very difficult. Mike Gammon ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bahadir Acuner" <bahadiracuner@yahoo.com> To: <AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU> Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2002 4:35 PM Subject: Re: No guns for our airline pilots ...... > Easy Joe, > US is not the only country that has been hit by terrorism and you know that. > Let's keep the subject confined to the guns in the cockpit. > Unfortunately, who ever came up with this, is thinking retroactively. > Look at the incidence with El AL flying to Istanbul and how the terrorist > was subdued by the pax and the security guard. > > Look at the ShoeBomber case, and see how pax and the F/As pulled together > and subdued him. I 'm all in favor of the fortified cockpit doors as that > will isolate the flight crew at the cockpit, help them to concentrate on > what they are supposed to do : fly the airplane. > > The pax will take care if any other kind of perpetrator in the cabin, > believe me. > > And the saddest part is terrorists are out smarting us once again. They > knew they couldn't get in the Arkia flight out of Kenya, and they used the > shoulder fired missiles. Do you think that the guns in the cockpit used > by pilots would help? > > I just don't see the reason why we should arm ourselves to the teeth when > we're the ONLY Western nation in the World that is already armed like > the cowboys in western movies.. > > BAHA ACUNER - CFI,CFII,MEI > Fan of spaghetti westerns > www.bahadiracuner.com > > -----Original Message----- > From: The Airline List [mailto:AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU]On Behalf Of > www.joepries.com > Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2002 1:07 PM > To: AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU > Subject: Re: No guns for our airline pilots ...... > > > David, > Lets try this- we'll have some terrorists hijack 2 BA 767s and 2 757s, crash > 2 of the 767s into downtown London, have a 757 crash in a field on the > countryside and another one crash into buckingham palace. Then we'll see > about being unpopular pal. BRING ON THE FIREPOWER. The only way to deal > with terrorists on commercial airliners is one- kill them where they stand. > G-d Bless America and our rights to protect ourselves > Joe > > > "David J. Wallace" <katana.flyer@telinco.co.uk> wrote: > > Can't think why the US is so unpopular around the world when people spout > phrases like 'bring on the firepower' as freely as some do. > > ----- > > > Joe Pries Commercial Aviation Photography > Serving the airline industry with quality photography > AOL IM AIRLINE72 > http://www.joepries.com > > > --------------------------------- > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now >