Aircraft are much stronger than you think. It would take a whole bunch of bullets to bring about explosive decompression. from http://www.secure-skies.org/FAQ.asp On May 2, 2002, Mr. Ron J. Hinderberger - Director, Aviation Safety Boeing Company - testified before the House Aviation Subcommittee "Commercial airplane structure is designed with sufficient strength, redundancy and damage tolerance that single or even multiple handgun bullet holes would not result in loss of the aircraft." He further stated that a bullet hole would almost certainly not cause a loss of cabin pressure. Even if it did, a loss of cabin pressure is a problem that pilots are trained to deal with quite easily. The Federal Air Marshals have correctly judged that arming their agents with firearms does not present an undue risk. Moreover, recalling that a FFDO would only use a firearm as a last resort, final line of defense, any outcome that may occur is preferable to having the airplane used as a guided bomb or shot down by a U.S. military fighter. David Ross http://home.attbi.com/~damiross/ ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Greenwood" <mgreenwood@telus.net> To: <AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU> Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2002 18:42 Subject: Re: [AIRLINE] No guns for our airline pilots ...... > And I feel sorry for you Joe if your pilot mistakes something for a hijack attempt, fires the gun causing explosive decompression and you plummet 39,000 ft to a very very hard landing. The solution is to make sure that box cutters never make it onto another aircraft, not turning pilots into gunslingers. >