Neil, I could not agree more. Let me also make another suggestion. Anyone who agrees to take a free one-day class from the airline maintenance people on what you should *not* shoot at in an airplane may fly at a 10% fare discount. At the risk of compromising my "no law" principles, that could even be codified in FAA regs, so that the airlines have no choice but to offer it and they suffer no additional liability for it.
Aviation in America would be the safest in the world.
Right now, we have Air Marshals covering only about 5% of flights, and they are forced to wear business suits! Despite our Air Mashals being chronically underpaid, the cost of hiring and training Air Marshals is still nearly prohibitive (why we have so few of them), and this would eliminate all but a very minimal cost. Since no one else in the world wears a business suit to travel any distance, it's like painting a target on your ass and telling the hijackers where to steal a gun. Encouraging ordinary passengers to carry frangible ammunition and giving them safety training would cover every single flight, and no one would ever know who had a gun or where it was.
Common sense.
As a pilot myself, though, I would like to add one correction. For 99% of a modern commercial flight, the pilot has nothing to do but watch for problems, and he even has a second pilot for backup for that. He just babysits the autopilot - "George" - and occasionally talks to ATC on the radio. It poses minimal risk to safety for him to defend his cockpit. If a hijacker makes it that far under my system - I *want* my pilot to have a gun! A great, big nasty .45 with ugly hollow points, preferably. Big, slow-moving man-stopper.
Furthermore, 99% of an airplane is perfectly safe to shoot inside of, even at 40,000 feet. A bullet sized hole in the skin is not going to cause explosive decompression (I'm an aircraft mechanic, too). In a jet, pressurization air is provided by a feed from the compressor stage of the jet engines (before the air is heated - can be mixed with heated air for cabin heating). There is an outflow valve that provides for ventilation and allows the pilot to control pressurization. It's one helluva lot bigger than a bullet, too. Taking out a window could do it, but even that is unlikely to kill anyone if the pilot is on the ball for an emergency descent.
Unfortunately, modern pilots are often lacking in the big balls of their predecessors today. Modern aviation is a technical job, not a swashbuckling job. Some of the options available to the pilots on 9/11 that were NOT used:
1. Depressurize the airplane the moment you suspect a problem. Consciousness for an average human unless tied to an oxygen mask is about 20 seconds at 35,000 feet - *not* the three minutes or so the average person can hold their breath in an emergency. At normal oxygen percentages in air, the partial pressure at that altitude is too low for the oxygen to make it into your blood cells - or to your brain. You get silly and go out - fast. A hijacker tied to passenger oxygen is not much of a threat to the cockpit. Besides, it's safer for violent maneuvering.
2. Find out if a 757 is capable of aerobatics. The pilots are always belted in, and a hijacker that is plastered to the ceiling or to the floor at 3X his normal weight isn't doing much to hurt you. You'd have passengers puking and pissing themselves, and the stewardesses and maybe one or two who were up going to the lavatories at the time getting injured - and the lavatories and kitchens would be a MESS, not to mention the gyro instruments in the cockpit (but you can fly any airplane with airspeed and altimeter if necessary). Nevertheless, most of your passengers would still be alive - it beats the shit out of being flown into the WTC. If you, as an air transport pilot, cannot handle aerobatics, then do your passengers a favor and take up selling shoes at Sears. Unfortunately, the very newest airplanes today have flight computers that prevent you from doing violent manuevers, which is why I refuse to fly in ANY airplane that doesn't have a direct physical connection between the cockpit and flight controls. Give me a 727 or 737 any day! If diving and then hauling back on the control column will not loop the bitch, I don't think she's an airplane, and I sure as hell don't think she's safe. Ditto if the wings come off in a simple 3G loop! Those airplanes are certainly not designed for aerobatics, but they should be stressed to a minimum of 6.5 gees positive and about 3.5 gees negative at their normal gross weight. If not, I suggest you find another way to get where you're going, because it's a crap shoot whether you get there at all. Just severe turbulence can do that to you! It's happened to me over the Guadalupe mountains in West Texas on a hot day. I spent a couple of hours getting my teeth jarred loose and just trying to stay right side up. I was never so glad to see El Paso in my life!
Whatever happened to the freighter captain who killed a hijacker and dumped him overboard at the end of the runway at LAX just before takeoff, then called and told the airport authorities to pick up the trash after takeoff? Yes, that really happened. Late 60s, I think. Pilots were still pilots then.
Never forget that FAA regs were changed to prevent pilots from carrying only on September 1, 2001. Back in 1982, I flew a C172 from Dallas to Ramona, California, as a private pilot. The aircraft owner refused to even lease to me until I proved that I had a gun and gave my word to carry it openly (he didn't want his airplane winding up in Mexico, possibly with me as an involuntary passenger, along with a whole load of dope). I wore a snub .38 on my hip for the entire trip, including carrying it about the various airports, buying fuel, paying for it, grabbing a bite to eat, etc. NO ONE questioned it. It was perfectly legal throughout the U.S. for any pilot-in-command to carry a firearm, even a lowly little gal private pilot. No difference from the master of a vessel at sea. Most commercial flights carried mail in those days, and those pilots were *required* to carry, but *any* pilot-in-command was encouraged to carry regardless of requirement. The airlines began to change that at some later point, but it was company regs, not FAA. In addition, I've carried a survival AR-7 on every cross country I've ever flown in a light plane, along with a canteen, a good knife, and a Bic lighter. Down in a wilderness area? Piece of shit Cessna ELT damaged or crap out on you? Passenger(s) injured or useless? No cell phone signal? Shoot a squirrel or two and have dinner, then walk out to the nearest phone. If it takes a couple of days, so what? Problem solved.
We changed that law and ten days later we had 9/11. Coincidence? You decide.
End of rant. This is my hot button.
Kate
