You know, all we need it to get one stupid pilot to be in the
crew rest room at the airport and loose his gun or it get stolen.
Believe me it will happen here in EWR. Next thing you know all flights
that had left are grounded and all departures stop till we find that
gun.
Today, I had a FA get attacked by a pax, the Capt jumped in and
stopped him. If it escalated further, does the pilot have the ok to pull
his gun? Now I'm not talking life or death situation, but the pilot is
not a trained LEO in what to do or how much force he should use.
To me it just opens to many Pandora's boxes. Compare it to a
possible hijacker getting past 100 (more or less) passengers and into a
locked cockpit (with reinforced doors) after what we know from what
happened on 9/11. It didn't take long for the heroes on UAL93 to figure
that out.
Just my opinion,
Roger
-----Original Message-----
From: The Airline List [mailto:AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU] On Behalf Of
David Ross
Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2003 8:32 PM
To: AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
Subject: Re: .....and for all these reasons, they should not carry guns
The reason why is because the government, in it's normal inability to do
anything right, has given so many stupid regulations regarding the
carriage of guns by pilots.
Does it make sense to carry a protection device in a lock box? No! It
should be handy, not locked away. I can see it now. "Mr. Hijacker,
please wait a moment while I unlock my weapon."
The TSA also wants gun-carrying pilots to be interviewed by
psychologists. This is absurd! Let me get this straight. It's okay for
a pilot to be responsible for hundreds of people and the safety yet he
can't be trusted with a tool to help prevent those same passengers from
being in the grips of a terrorist?
Like many government agencies, the TSA is led by totally incompetent
people. Want to know the difference between TSA and the Boy Scouts? The
Boy Scouts have adult leadership.
David R
http://home.attbi.com/~damiross/airlines.html
----- Original Message -----
From: <lafrance@verizon.net>
To: <AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2003 3:19 PM
Subject: [AIRLINE] .....and for all these reasons, they should not carry
guns
> ...and for all these reasons, pilots should not carry guns. It puts
> the
whole airport at risk.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ALPA Critical of TSA Rule for Pilots Carrying Firearms
>
>
> WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- The head of the nation's
> largest
pilot
> union has told the Transportation Security Administration that the new
rule
> governing how armed pilots would carry their firearms creates more
problems
> than it solves.
snip---snip---
> The TSA rule also apparently violates a specific provision in the
> law
that
> created the FFDO program, requiring training "to ensure that the
> officer maintains exclusive control over the officer's firearm at all
> times ... " The TSA rule would require an FFDO pilot who is flying as
> a passenger (deadheading or commuting) to have the weapon stowed in
> the cargo hold -- where it would not be under the officer's control.
> TSA has indicated that it will review the program after the
> initial
class
> of 48 pilot applicants has been trained and deployed and make any
necessary
> improvements. We are hopeful that by that point the TSA will realize
> that
the
> lock-box option is seriously flawed. Failing that, because of the
> many concerns over this procedure, ALPA will pursue all options, up to
> and including legal and/or legislative action, to correct this
> problem.
>
>