Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company
The New York Times
July 26, 2002 Friday
Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section A; Column 1; National Desk; Pg. 19

LENGTH: 881 words

HEADLINE: TRACES OF TERROR: AIRLINE SECURITY;
Legislation to Arm Pilots Gains Support in the Senate

BYLINE: By MATTHEW L. WALD

DATELINE: WASHINGTON, July 25

BODY:


Senate opposition to arming airline pilots waned further today as two more lawmakers unexpectedly endorsed the idea and positions against it were all but absent at a hearing on aviation security. The only counterargument that the secretary of transportation could offer at the hearing was that the requisite training would cost money.

A Senate bill that would permit pilots to carry handguns, similar to legislation that has already been overwhelmingly approved by the House, now has 24 co-sponsors. Among the latest to express support was Senator Gordon H. Smith, Republican of Oregon, who said today that he had been leaning against the bill but changed his mind when he spoke to two pilots during a weather delay at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.

Mr. Smith paraphrased those pilots' argument this way: "There are armed pilots already, but they're armed with F-15's and F-16's, and they have instructions to shoot us down if we can't keep control over our airplanes."

The senator said the pilots had told him, "We'd rather take the first shot," with guns of their own to use on terrorists.

At the same hearing, of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Senator George Allen, Republican of Virginia, also announced his support. Earlier Mr. Allen had favored what he described today as "a free-market approach" that would allow individual airlines to decide whether to arm their pilots, and so lure customers according to the carrier's decision.

Not everyone on the committee supports the legislation, but only the chairman, Senator Ernest F. Hollings, Democrat of South Carolina, spoke forcefully against the idea today. Supporters now believe they have enough votes to move the bill out of committee despite Mr. Hollings's opposition, and to win passage on the floor.

Mr. Hollings said in an opening statement, "If we had another billion to spend, which is the initial cost of arming the pilots, we could spend it more wisely on new doors" to secure airliner cockpits.

But Mr. Hollings's estimate was at the high end. The true cost would depend in large part on the number of the nation's pilots who volunteered to be armed, and an official of the Air Line Pilots Association said that while there were 90,000 who would be eligible, probably only 25,000 to 30,000 would take the training and be deputized as gun-carrying "federal flight deck officers."

The idea's main opponent, John W. Magaw, was fired for other reasons last week from the top post at the Transportation Security Administration. His successor, James M. Loy, said today that he was "hesitant" about the proposal but had ordered a thorough review.

President Bush himself has expressed reservations about arming pilots, but the bill's supporters hope the change in leadership at the security agency will provide a graceful way for the administration to reverse position.

One witness at the hearing today did speak against the idea: Capt. Ed Davidson, director of flight safety at Northwest Airlines, said, "As a professional commercial airline pilot, when I'm on duty, my singular focus is, and always must be, the safe operation of my aircraft."

Captain Davidson said a cockpit was like "a china shop," too confined and delicate a place for using a firearm. Giving guns to pilots, he said, would create "a temptation, and more likely an imperative, for flight crews to open the cockpit door in dangerous and chaotic cabin situations." That would occur, he said, "precisely the times the cockpit door should remain closed while pilots land the airplane as quickly as possible."

The Air Line Pilots Association, on the other hand, has become a strong supporter of the proposal. The chairman of its security committee, Capt. Stephen Luckey, said today that even if hijackers were killing flight attendants in the cabin, armed pilots would be disciplined enough not to open the door, because they would be "prepared to take some losses" to save the greatest number of lives, in the air and on the ground.

While the senators seemed to be preparing to overrule the Transportation Department on the arming of pilots, they also appeared disinclined to extend deadlines, set by Congress late last year, for a federal takeover of all passenger screening by Nov. 19 and for screening 100 percent of checked luggage for bombs by Dec. 31.

"I strongly oppose any extensions unless they make our system stronger," said Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon. With the first chief of the security agency already fired, and with recent statements by Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta that his ability to meet the deadlines was being hobbled by insufficiency of resources, Mr. Wyden deplored "an indication that this issue is sliding back into the same pattern of the last 15 years," where Congress would move ahead after a "tragedy" and "an outcry," but, "for one reason or another, the job didn't get done."

Senator John McCain of Arizona, the committee's ranking Republican, asked Secretary Mineta whether the administration was considering exemptions on its own for large airports that now appear unlikely to meet the baggage screening deadline.

"That's something we've talked about in-house," Mr. Mineta replied, "but we haven't come to any determination between our department and the White House."


URL: http://www.nytimes.com

GRAPHIC: Photo: An airline pilot leaving a hearing yesterday where a Senate committee took testimony on aviation security from witnesses including James M. Loy, right, the new chief of the Transportation Security Administration. (Carol T. Powers for The New York Times)

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