Airline crews grapple with issue of self-defense

Josey1

Airline crews grapple with issue of self-defenseBy the Los Angeles Times Recommend this story to others. WASHINGTON - Airline Capt. Linda Pauwels is an ``anti-gun'' mom who keeps her two young children away from violent video games and television shows.Yet if the government allows pilots to pack a pistol to defend the cockpit against hijackers, Pauwels says she'll get a gun and explain to the kids that she needs it for work.Flight attendant Alin Boswell always prided himself on keeping the customers happy. Now he worries that a customer could turn out to be a terrorist he'd have to battle at 30,000 feet.``You look at everything, from wine bottles to oxygen bottles to fire extinguishers - anything you can use to protect yourself,'' Boswell said. Ideally, he said, he'd like a stun gun.Public supports firearmsFive months after the Sept. 11 attacks, pilots and flight attendants complain that they have yet to receive any meaningful self-defense training, although their jobs require them to take down anyone from a shoe bomber to a business traveler who suddenly decides to kick in the cockpit door.This week, the government begins formal consideration of demands from flight crews for a new kind of standard-issue equipment: The pilots want semiautomatics, while the flight attendants say stun guns would be a wiser option for both. More than 6,000 people have responded to a Federal Aviation Administration request for public comments, and the vast majority support arming crews - with firearms.Vulnerable, yet scrutinizedBut airlines adamantly are opposed to firearms, and some U.S. Transportation Department officials fear that any kind of weaponry will lead to unintended consequences. ``This is not something that is a slam dunk,'' said one official, referring to firearms. ``As for Tasers (stun guns), I'm not sure how one trains for it, but don't volunteer me.''While the government deliberates, pilots and flight attendants must wrestle with anxiety and a lingering sense of vulnerability. The stepped-up security at airports offers little reassurance, they say. Instead, it often adds hassles.Even with their uniforms and airline ID, crew members are subject to metal detection wands, shoe checks, pat-downs and hand searches of their bags, although workers who service planes on the ground do not have to endure such rigors.``The whole thing doesn't make any sense,'' said Pauwels, who lives in Mission Viejo, Calif., and flies MD 80 jetliners out of Los Angeles International Airport. ``I have had my personal hygiene products removed from my bag and looked at. That is very embarrassing. It's difficult when you're doing this job to be treated as if you're part of the problem, not the solution.''Recruited from pilot ranksOn a certain level, the push by pilots to be armed is about repairing psychological damage. Their proudly autonomous profession was grossly violated by the events of Sept. 11, and now they endure a thousand perceived affronts, such as the confiscation of pocket tools they routinely carried for small emergencies.``People don't understand what we mean when we say `Arm the pilots,' '' said Capt. Steve Luckey, the leading security expert for the Air Line Pilots Association. ``Just giving the pilot a gun would be a very irresponsible approach. We're talking about a program that would be built with the help of the FBI. These would be armed federal officers, who happen to be recruited from pilot ranks.'' The volunteer pilots would augment the ranks of federal air marshals.The government has set no deadline for a decision on stun guns or firearms. Meanwhile, the FAA is counseling pilots and flight attendants to be patient. The agency has issued new guidelines for anti-hijacking training, and spokesman Les Dorr said most flight crew members will be retrained by the end of the year. http://www.registerguard.com/news/20020218/2a.nat.crews.0218.html

Iconoclast

And don't buy into the 'airport security' BS, either. I have a pilot friend who's been checked through more security points since 9-11 than the rest of us will see in a lifetime & he still has all sorts of 'dangerous' metallic objects in his carry-on toilet kid (scissors, nail files & the like) which have yet to be discovered.