• What's elliott?
• About elliott
• Contact us

t o p i c s

• Business
• Commentary
• Destinations
• Help
• Leisure
• Technology
• Vault

Copyright Elliott Publishing. All rights reserved. For more information, call (305) 453-4781 or send e-mail to us.

Flying Shotgun
Opinion · May 6, 2002

Can a pistol-packing pilot stop the next terrorist hijacking with lethal force?

Airline crewmembers, who believe they're the last line of defense against a repeat of Sept. 11, have been lobbying the government to let them carry firearms on board.

Their efforts hit the mark recently when House committee members endorsed a measure giving pilots the right to arm themselves. Several senators reportedly are working up their own bill that would give the crewmembers the go-ahead to bring a gun to work.

But these misguided measures to improve airline security, like so many other well-meaning ideas that seemed to make sense in the post-9/11 frenzy, are certain to backfire.

Pilots are no more a last line of defense against terrorism than baggage handlers or airline mechanics, and passengers will probably find themselves in far greater peril if firearms are permitted in the cockpit. The argument for allowing deadly weapons on board, while seductive, is unsound because it doesn't take into account the high risk of arming pilots - physically, psychologically and practically.

The pressurized interior of an aircraft wasn't meant for a firefight, which is something pilots know better than anyone. Not only could an errant bullet damage equipment that's critical to the operation of a jet, but it might also depressurize the whole cabin. A mid-air gunfight is almost certain to kill more people than it saves. Passengers who are able to dodge the bullets could asphyxiate or, in extreme cases, get sucked out of the aircraft.

Air marshals carry guns on board, but they're trained sharpshooters who use special ammunition that can't penetrate the aircraft's hull. It would be impractical to train pilots the same way.

It would also be unwise.

Letting pilots carry guns assumes we'll be safer, but experience tells us that's sometimes not the case. How can anyone forget the final words of EgyptAir flight 990 co-pilot Gameel al-Batouti, who is said to have chanted "Tawakkalt ala Allah" - "I rely on God" - before steering the twin-engine Boeing 767 with 217 people aboard into the ocean sixty miles south of Nantucket almost four years ago? Or the circumstances surrounding the crash of SilkAir Flight MI185, which went down mysteriously enroute to Singapore in 1997, killing all 104 people aboard? The cause was reportedly pilot suicide.

And we want men like this to carry guns?

Even the most rigorous psychological screening and pilot training would be in vain, if Rich Roth, the executive director of CTI Consulting, is to be believed. In a recent test to simulate pilots shooting a cockpit intruder, he reported that a gun was all but useless. Roth told USA Today that a pilot had as much of a chance of killing a terrorist as a crewmember - or a passenger.

Any pilot who has been on the job longer than a few months knows that packing a piece is a dumb idea. So why did the Airline Pilots' Security Alliance recently present Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) with a 45,000-signature petitions demanding that pilots get special training and federal law enforcement status? Why is the Air Line Pilots Association supporting the idea?

The cynical explanation is that pilots have always wanted a badge and gun to go with their uniform, and that this is their best shot at one. But the truth is that like the rest of us, they are just scared. They know there will be another terrorist attack on a commercial aircraft and they desperately don't want it to be theirs.

But allowing pilots to carry guns is a quick fix that turns airline crewmembers into lone rangers and lulls them into a false sense of security. Instead of scrambling for a simplistic solution we should try to repair a hopelessly broken aviation security system, from start to finish.

Their lives - and ours - depend on it.

Christopher Elliott is a travel commentator based in Key Largo, Fla. All e-mailed questions may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion.