HEADLINE: Pilots unions' plea to Bush:
Allow guns in cockpit
BYLINE: Blake Morrison
BODY: The nation's five largest pilots
unions have asked President Bush to intercede personally to let pilots arm themselves aboard commercial jets.
The appeal to the president, an unprecedented show of
solidarity by unions representing 114,000 airline pilots, comes after two top
Bush officials said they oppose guns in cockpits.
The unions say the new Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has
not moved fast enough to establish a firearms training program for pilots who
want to carry guns.
Some aviation safety
experts argue guns would create new hazards, from distracting pilots to
accidental discharge or theft. The pilots unions contend a training program
would address those concerns and that lethal force is the only certain way to
stop hijackers.
In a Time/CNN poll
conducted weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, 61% favored allowing
pilots to carry guns.
Earlier this year,
however, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta and Homeland Security Director
Tom Ridge each said they oppose arming pilots.
An administration spokesman said Thursday that Bush agrees with Ridge.
He said arming pilots is unnecessary because of improvements in security, such
as fortified cockpit doors and better screening.
Union leaders question that assessment.
"We're seven months since Sept. 11 and . . . all the things they're
trying to do -- screeners, federal air marshals, bag matching -- are not up to
speed yet and might never be," said Al Aitken, a leader in the Allied Pilots
Association.
The request for the
president's help came during a meeting Wednesday with administration officials
at the White House and in a letter sent to Bush this week.
The TSA, which oversees aviation security, has yet to make
its recommendation on the issue, but a spokesman says it may come soon. TSA
officials met with pilots Thursday.
Despite Bush's stance, the unions are undeterred.
"We are absolutely intent on establishing a program where
the pilots will be armed to defend the American people against acts of
terrorism," Aitken said. "We won't stop until we achieve it."
Steve Luckey, chairman of the national security committee
for the Air Line Pilots Association, said he's convinced arming pilots is the
only way to stop a determined terrorist. "The only assurance," he said, "is to
have a lethal threat."
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