In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
TSA procedures 'discourage' armed pilots
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
TSA procedures 'discourage' armed pilots
'Restrictive' government policies make carrying weapon prohibitive
Posted: August 27, 2003
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Jon Dougherty
c 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
A commercial airline pilot who has been through the Transportation Security Agency's Federal Flight Deck Officer program and has been "trained" to carry a gun in the cockpit says the agency's policies "are designed to discourage pilots from participating in the program once they do get through training."
(Boeing photo. Used with permission.)
The pilot, who requested anonymity, told WorldNetDaily the TSA has set "restrictive" guidelines for the carry of guns through airports and even in cockpits, though other armed federal agents and officers have far fewer limitations and can access their weapons much more readily.
According to information published on the TSA's website, the agency cannot divulge specifics of the armed-pilot procedures, for security purposes. But that claim of protection, say critics, is allowing the agency to cover up the fact it is making it too difficult for pilots to fulfill Congress' and the Bush administration's mandate.
Transportation officials made no bones about their opposition to arming pilots before Congress authorized it last fall. Initially, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta opposed arming pilots before eventually changing his position, and TSA chief James Loy grudgingly signed on to the issue only after he realized Congress would pass an armed-pilot provision.
That initial opposition, critics say, has carried over to its implementation of the program, resulting in delays, cost overruns and a bureaucratic nightmare for pilots who volunteer for the training.
"In contrast to the ability for any deputy sheriff, armed [Housing and Urban Development] or Post Office official to carry a gun in the passenger cabin and airport terminal, loaded and concealed . ready for use at any moment, the FFDO cannot," the pilot told WorldNetDaily. "When the pilot does have access to the weapon, he most likely would not be able to use it in a timely manner in case of a cockpit intrusion, due to the FFDO [standard operating procedures]."
Supporters of the program say pilots should go through the same training as other federal officers. The FFDO's week-long program involves firearms and hand-to-hand combat training, and is held at the TSA Law Enforcement Academy in Glynco, Ga. Pilots must also endure background checks and psychological testing that could take as long as two months, according to published information.
Some pilots' groups have complained about the lag time.
"It's been almost two years since the attacks ... and we only have less than 150 pilots approved to carry a firearm," said Capt. Bob Lambert, a former fighter pilot and current president of the Airline Pilots' Security Alliance, a group that has lobbied hard for arming pilots.
"While the Department of Homeland Security warns that al-Qaida has threatened to use 'commercial aviation here in the United States and abroad to further their cause,' their colleagues at [the Transportation Security Administration] are preventing the fastest and most effective deterrent, which is to arm pilots in the cockpit as a last line of defense against an attack," Lambert said.
In June Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., head of the House Aviation Subcommittee, also complained about the slow pace of training pilots, USA Today reported.
"It's one more bureaucratic disaster devised by those who want to make this more complex and expensive than it has to be," Mica told the paper. "I don't know what their ulterior motive is, but it is very frustrating."
TSA officials were contacted for this story, but did not respond to questions about the FFDO program.
The Associated Press reported the pace of getting pilots through the FFDO program would increase after summer. There could be more delays, however, because one report said the TSA was planning to move its sole FFDO program from Georgia to another federal training facility at Artesia, N.M.
There are other complaints about the program as well. Some pilots say the agency's psychological testing is redundant. They maintain the TSA's psychological requirements are unnecessary because they must submit to and pass many layers of psychological examination by airlines before they can fly the multimillion-dollar aircraft.
"Late last year, Congress overwhelmingly passed legislation directing the TSA to arm America's airline pilots to allow them to protect their passengers and aircraft against terrorist hijackings," says Capt. David Mackett, executive vice president of the Airline Pilots' Security Alliance. "The TSA, admittedly opposed to the program, responded with antipathy toward Congress and our nation's pilots, designing a program so rife with roadblocks and nonsensical practices it is doomed to failure."
Mackett, in a letter to pilots posted on APSA's website, says TSA, among other things, "requires . onerous redundant background investigations of pilots who have already passed the required layers of screening repeatedly," as part of a campaign to "discourage volunteers . and disqualify pilots."
One pilot the TSA disqualified, Mackett said, was a 10-year veteran of the Drug Enforcement Agency and the U.S. Customs Service.
According to TSA information, to qualify for the program pilots must "successfully complete all selection assessments including any specified cognitive psychological, medical or physical ability requirements; be determined to meet all established standards by TSA;" and "be available to attend the training program in its entirety on your own time and at your own expense."
The agency covers the actual cost of training, but pilots are expected to pay for their own accommodations and lodging for the week-long course. Once certified, FFDO "deputation" lasts for five years, unless it is revoked by the government. Airlines do not have "veto" power over their pilots who seek training.
"It is time to start treating airline pilots as the responsible professionals they are and to take advantage of this critical and inexpensive resource," he said. "The pilots that volunteer for this do so on their own time and do not even get paid for this vital service.
"It's time to get serious about airline security," Mackett wrote.
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=34284
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878<P>
'Restrictive' government policies make carrying weapon prohibitive
Posted: August 27, 2003
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Jon Dougherty
c 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
A commercial airline pilot who has been through the Transportation Security Agency's Federal Flight Deck Officer program and has been "trained" to carry a gun in the cockpit says the agency's policies "are designed to discourage pilots from participating in the program once they do get through training."
(Boeing photo. Used with permission.)
The pilot, who requested anonymity, told WorldNetDaily the TSA has set "restrictive" guidelines for the carry of guns through airports and even in cockpits, though other armed federal agents and officers have far fewer limitations and can access their weapons much more readily.
According to information published on the TSA's website, the agency cannot divulge specifics of the armed-pilot procedures, for security purposes. But that claim of protection, say critics, is allowing the agency to cover up the fact it is making it too difficult for pilots to fulfill Congress' and the Bush administration's mandate.
Transportation officials made no bones about their opposition to arming pilots before Congress authorized it last fall. Initially, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta opposed arming pilots before eventually changing his position, and TSA chief James Loy grudgingly signed on to the issue only after he realized Congress would pass an armed-pilot provision.
That initial opposition, critics say, has carried over to its implementation of the program, resulting in delays, cost overruns and a bureaucratic nightmare for pilots who volunteer for the training.
"In contrast to the ability for any deputy sheriff, armed [Housing and Urban Development] or Post Office official to carry a gun in the passenger cabin and airport terminal, loaded and concealed . ready for use at any moment, the FFDO cannot," the pilot told WorldNetDaily. "When the pilot does have access to the weapon, he most likely would not be able to use it in a timely manner in case of a cockpit intrusion, due to the FFDO [standard operating procedures]."
Supporters of the program say pilots should go through the same training as other federal officers. The FFDO's week-long program involves firearms and hand-to-hand combat training, and is held at the TSA Law Enforcement Academy in Glynco, Ga. Pilots must also endure background checks and psychological testing that could take as long as two months, according to published information.
Some pilots' groups have complained about the lag time.
"It's been almost two years since the attacks ... and we only have less than 150 pilots approved to carry a firearm," said Capt. Bob Lambert, a former fighter pilot and current president of the Airline Pilots' Security Alliance, a group that has lobbied hard for arming pilots.
"While the Department of Homeland Security warns that al-Qaida has threatened to use 'commercial aviation here in the United States and abroad to further their cause,' their colleagues at [the Transportation Security Administration] are preventing the fastest and most effective deterrent, which is to arm pilots in the cockpit as a last line of defense against an attack," Lambert said.
In June Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., head of the House Aviation Subcommittee, also complained about the slow pace of training pilots, USA Today reported.
"It's one more bureaucratic disaster devised by those who want to make this more complex and expensive than it has to be," Mica told the paper. "I don't know what their ulterior motive is, but it is very frustrating."
TSA officials were contacted for this story, but did not respond to questions about the FFDO program.
The Associated Press reported the pace of getting pilots through the FFDO program would increase after summer. There could be more delays, however, because one report said the TSA was planning to move its sole FFDO program from Georgia to another federal training facility at Artesia, N.M.
There are other complaints about the program as well. Some pilots say the agency's psychological testing is redundant. They maintain the TSA's psychological requirements are unnecessary because they must submit to and pass many layers of psychological examination by airlines before they can fly the multimillion-dollar aircraft.
"Late last year, Congress overwhelmingly passed legislation directing the TSA to arm America's airline pilots to allow them to protect their passengers and aircraft against terrorist hijackings," says Capt. David Mackett, executive vice president of the Airline Pilots' Security Alliance. "The TSA, admittedly opposed to the program, responded with antipathy toward Congress and our nation's pilots, designing a program so rife with roadblocks and nonsensical practices it is doomed to failure."
Mackett, in a letter to pilots posted on APSA's website, says TSA, among other things, "requires . onerous redundant background investigations of pilots who have already passed the required layers of screening repeatedly," as part of a campaign to "discourage volunteers . and disqualify pilots."
One pilot the TSA disqualified, Mackett said, was a 10-year veteran of the Drug Enforcement Agency and the U.S. Customs Service.
According to TSA information, to qualify for the program pilots must "successfully complete all selection assessments including any specified cognitive psychological, medical or physical ability requirements; be determined to meet all established standards by TSA;" and "be available to attend the training program in its entirety on your own time and at your own expense."
The agency covers the actual cost of training, but pilots are expected to pay for their own accommodations and lodging for the week-long course. Once certified, FFDO "deputation" lasts for five years, unless it is revoked by the government. Airlines do not have "veto" power over their pilots who seek training.
"It is time to start treating airline pilots as the responsible professionals they are and to take advantage of this critical and inexpensive resource," he said. "The pilots that volunteer for this do so on their own time and do not even get paid for this vital service.
"It's time to get serious about airline security," Mackett wrote.
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=34284
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878<P>
Comments
By LESLIE MILLER, Associated Press
Last updated: 10:15 p.m., Tuesday, August 26, 2003
WASHINGTON -- After a slow start in training pilots to carry guns, the government said Tuesday that it has filled its weekly classes and expects to arm all qualified pilots who volunteer within a year.
An association of pilots says, however, that the government is discouraging volunteers by insisting on psychological testing, requiring lockboxes to carry weapons and holding training at a single remote site.
Fewer than 200 passenger airline pilots were trained and deputized to carry a weapon since Congress ordered the program in November.
"We should have thousands, not hundreds," said Capt. Bob Lambert, president of the Airline Pilots' Security Alliance, a grass-roots organization with members from all major U.S. airlines.
Lambert spoke at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport during one of several press conferences held by pilots around the country to urge the Bush administration to speed up the program.
John Moran, who heads the program, said it's meeting the demand.
"The great majority of those who have volunteered will be trained within a year," Moran said.
Full classes of 48 are booked through the end of September, he said, and the agency plans to double its classes in January.
The government checks pilots' backgrounds and gives them written psychological tests and interviews to qualify them for a week of classes, weapons instruction and hand-to-hand combat drills before they're given a gun.
Sen. Jim Bunning, a Kentucky Republican who sponsored the bill to arm pilots, said that isn't fast enough.
"TSA must do better," Bunning said at a news conference at Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport. "Pilots volunteering to receive this program's training are not receiving it in a fair and timely way."
TSA chief James Loy called the psychological testing an important tool in determining a pilot's aptitude for using lethal force while flying an airliner.
"That is not a small thing for anyone to think about in a cowboy fashion," Loy said. "That is a dramatically important thing for us to get right."
The Transportation Security Administration says only a few dozen pilots who applied failed the psychological tests. The agency stresses the test doesn't measure whether pilots are competent to fly a plane.
Lambert doesn't believe the testing is objective. "We've seen people turned down with exemplary backgrounds," he said. "How can they explain turning down people who've gone through federal law enforcement training?"
TSA spokesman Robert Johnson said confusion may have resulted because a rejection letter was mistakenly sent to 160 candidates. "It was just a clerical error," he said. "It was corrected within three days."
Pilots estimate 40,000 of them would sign up if the agency didn't insist on the testing, which they view as unnecessary because they endure exhaustive screening just to become commercial airline pilots.
Pilots say the agency is dragging its feet because it didn't want the program in the first place.
Loy admitted he had wondered why the government would introduce weapons into airplanes when so much effort was going into making them safer. But, he said, "it's the will of the people."
"We have worked diligently to build the right program," he said.
On the Net:
http://www.tsa.gov
http://www.secure-skies.org
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=163802&newsdate=8/26/2003&BCCode=BNNATION
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878<P>
By Ken Kaye
Staff Writer
Posted August 26 2003
Despite a well-publicized increase in security over the past year, passengers still try to sneak dangerous items onto airliners, including knives, guns and a machete at Miami International Airport.
At Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, the Transportation Security Administration found a stun gun concealed as a cell phone. At Palm Beach International Airport, it stopped a U.S. Secret Service agent from carrying a simulated explosive device onto a plane.
Elsewhere across the nation, screeners recently found razor blades in sneakers, a bayonet hidden in an artificial leg and a handgun disguised as a drill.
Saying security screeners aren't easily foiled, the TSA has promised to be on high alert for the Labor Day travel weekend.
"Every day, screeners are meeting the challenge of keeping flights secure, and all too often they are finding dangerous weapons that passengers are trying to take on flights," TSA Administrator James Loy said.
The agency has underscored the need for tough screening since a handgun was found inside a teddy bear in Orlando last month. A news conference is planned today to display items confiscated at Miami International Airport.
Recently, screeners detected two razor blades inside the insoles of a man's tennis shoes at New York's John F. Kennedy International, which, the agency says, shows why it must be careful with footwear.
Screeners also have found knives in lipstick cases and canes with swords hidden inside.
In Hartford, Conn., they stopped a man who had hollowed out a prosthetic leg to conceal a 9-inch military knife.
At Austin-Bergstrom International in Texas, a man attempted to sneak a 9 mm handgun inside a car stereo. At another airport they discovered two handguns taped between frying pans in a checked bag.
The passengers who conceal such items aren't necessarily terrorists, but rather people with "ill intentions," said TSA spokeswoman Lauren Stover. "The truth is, some people are out to create a problem on an aircraft. Other people test the system for possible future attempts."
Despite the TSA's recent finds, Steve Elson, a former FAA security inspector and vocal critic, says the agency too often misses dangerous items or allows suspicious people to get through checkpoints.
"We have repeatedly proven they can't even successfully conduct screening," he said.
But TSA officials note that since its inception in February 2002, screeners have confiscated 7.5 million items, including 2.3 million knives, 49,331 box cutters and 1,437 firearms, and have made more than 1,000 arrests.
Ken Kaye can be reached at kkaye@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7911.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-stsa26aug26,1,6891996.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878<P>
If terrorists do manage another airliner hijacking, and the crew is not armed, it will be hard to determine an appropriately severe punishment for these miserable cretins.
redcedars