Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company
The New York Times
September 26, 2001 Wednesday
Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section B; Column 1; National Desk; Pg. 7

LENGTH: 786 words

HEADLINE: A NATION CHALLENGED: AIRLINE SECURITY;
Proposal to Arm Pilots Gets Mixed Reaction

BYLINE: By MATTHEW L. WALD

DATELINE: WASHINGTON, Sept. 25

BODY:


The president of the nation's largest union of airline pilots told Congress today that his members should be allowed to take an F.B.I. training course and then be deputized as federal law enforcement officers, steps that would permit them to carry guns in the cockpit. But the idea got mixed reviews from other aviation experts and from members of Congress.

"The cockpit must be defended, and pilots must play a pivotal role in protecting their place of work," said the witness, Duane Woerth, a 747 pilot who is president of the Air Line Pilots Association.

Captain Woerth's proposal came at a hearing of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Aviation, where he also called for stun guns in the cockpit.

The subcommittee chairman, Representative John L. Mica, Republican of Florida, said he strongly supported arming cockpit crews. But others who testified did not. David Z. Plavin, president of the Airports Council International, an industry group, said that if pilots were armed, "the potential for real risk to people" would be "escalated dramatically."

Another witness, Patricia A. Friend, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, said her members were discussing the idea of asking to have nonlethal weapons available to them. But, Ms. Friend said, they have no interest in guns.

The proposal to let cockpit crews carry firearms has divided even pilots themselves, and today Congressional leaders did not warm to the idea.

"I don't want any cowboy pilots going back to fight hijackers and leaving the plane unattended," said Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, the House majority whip.

The House majority leader, Representative Dick Armey of Texas, suggested that stun guns were a better idea. A gun that fires bullets, he said, "has a chance of falling into the hands of the bad guys."

The House minority leader, Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, said strengthening cockpit doors would be more practical.

"I don't think we need pilots to be trying to be security officers" while they are flying the planes, said Mr. Gephardt, who also called for more armed marshals in the air.

Existing rules appear to allow the Federal Aviation Administration to authorize pilots to carry guns. But the agency generally does not do so, and the current F.A.A. administrator, Jane F. Garvey, while saying she is open to the idea, has expressed skepticism.

Ms. Garvey is discussing a variety of ideas to improve aircraft security, and so are her superiors. This afternoon Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta briefed President Bush on security options being developed in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, among them the fortifying of cockpit doors. Mr. Mineta is to brief Congressional leaders before the president flies to Chicago on Thursday to address airline workers there.

No aviation security idea appears to have universal support, however. For instance, though pilots want a deadbolt lock installed on the inside of their cockpit doors, one member of the House subcommittee, Representative Vernon J. Ehlers, Republican of Michigan, recalled today the 1999 crash of EgyptAir 990 on a flight from New York to Cairo. The first officer of that Boeing 767, alone in the cockpit while the captain went to the bathroom, is believed to have deliberately crashed the plane. In cases like that, Mr. Ehlers said, safety would dictate having a way to get back into the cockpit.

Some pilots think the firearms proposal, one of several ideas from Captain Woerth's union, has been overemphasized. At the Coalition of Airline Pilots Associations, which includes the unions representing pilots at U.P.S., FedEx, American Airlines and other carriers, Capt. Bob Miller said that "we favor the study of any defensive weapons," which, he said, could include guns. But Congress should not "rush to judgment," Captain Miller said, because the solution to the threat against airliners will require many fixes and "zones of security."

Many pilots, though, would like some kind of weapon. Matt Gaebler, who has been a first officer at American Airlines for nine years, said that on Sept. 11 he was among the crew on a flight back from Europe and was over Labrador when word came that two planes had hit the World Trade Center.

In a subsequent e-mail message that described his experience that day, he said the members of the crew barricaded the cockpit door and armed themselves with a crash ax and knives.

"I have nothing against pilots being armed," he said in a telephone interview. "In fact, I'm all in favor of that. We're the people that have to be in the aircraft, and we have to be trustable."

Still, he said, what he wants most are better cockpit doors, armed marshals and better weapons screening.


URL: http://www.nytimes.com

GRAPHIC: Photo: Duane Woerth, left, of the Air Line Pilots Association and David Z. Plavin of the Airports Council International testifying yesterday. (Luke Frazza/Agence France-Presse)

LOAD-DATE: September 26, 2001