AIRLINE "SAFETY" - - AS THE DUST SETTLES

By

Bill Dietrick

The country was stunned into insensibility by the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and it took a while to gather our thoughts.  Thank God, our new president didn't seem to have the problem.  He has moved rapidly, decidedly, and covertly to bring our armed forces against the parties responsible for this dastardly deed.

The FAA, however, reacted in typical, knee-jerk, bureaucratic form.  The terrorists were able to commit these acts by simply being armed with knives and boxcutters. The American people have been tamed down so far in the last years of tranquility that three airliners full of people were easily taken over and used as flying bombs against helpless targets.  The fourth airliner, however, apparently had some men and/or women with some spine, and these attacked the terrorists with bare hands, preventing them from achieving their goals.

The FAA's reaction?  Gee, let's make certain we remove anything sharp from the passengers!  They have reacted by confiscating nail clippers, penknives, disposable razors and plastic butter knives, by stopping curbside check-in, and wiping out the use of e-tickets.  My Lord, what sort of fantasy world do these people live in?  Do they really think any of this will accomplish anything, or would have had any effect on the hijackings?  If they do, they're indulging in illicit substances to the detriment of their cognitive abilities.

The idea that the FAA can guarantee weapons-free flights by anything they could possibly institute at the nation's airports is absolutely ludicrous.  I recently took a round-trip flight, taking only my carry-on soft portfolio/briefcase.  Going through Denver International Airport, the person X-raying my bag asked permission to go through it.  I said, "By all means."  He pulled about everything out of the bag, checked it all, inspected my camera and my phone, put it all back, said "Thank you," and sent me on to my plane.  At the destination airport, the same thing happened on departure.  When I got home that night and started unloading the bag, I found my backup magazine for my compact .45 ACP, full of ammo.  This was strictly an error on my part, but shows you how a thorough check can still miss something vital.  I don't want to elaborate for the whole world to read, but I can about guarantee if I was a bad guy, intent on harming a planeload of people, I could get a weapon on about any flight I pleased, bigger, nastier, and more lethal than anything the terrorists on these flights had, and I could do this if you performed a strip-search on me.  Use your imagination, and I'm sure you could think of a few ways, as well.  If I can figure it out, I'm sure these terrorists can, as well.  After all, they're trained in this sort of thing.

This is particularly true if one is allowed carry-on baggage.  Traveling these days is an experience in frustration, as half the folks boarding a plane these days think they're allowed to bring the entire contents of their closet on board.  How many times have you watched some twit carrying a two-suiter folding bag, a huge shoulder bag, and a briefcase, then trying to stuff it all into the overhead bins?  With this much material coming aboard, there is no way in the world these low-paid inspectors can hope to cope with true and careful searches.

There is only one truism when it comes to attempts at mass murder.  These attempts are stopped by only one thing...........somebody with a gun.  This has been true with the school shootings, and it's just as true aboard aircraft.  The only school shooting that was rapidly brought to a halt was the one in Pearl, Mississippi, where the assistant principal ran to his pickup and got his .45, then returned to confront the shooter.  On board an aircraft, we don't have that luxury.  We are not allowed weapons of self-defense.  The only things the FAA has done since this tragedy is to make even more certain the passengers are defenseless.  

The Airline Pilots Association has now demanded the right to arm themselves in the cockpit.  I have absolutely no problem with that.  Many of those guys flying those sky buses were combat pilots, who packed pistols when they were flying over Southeast Asia.  The idea they don't know what to do with handguns is laughable.  The younger guys have already indicated their willingness to undergo training from the FBI.  Fine.  It's a step in the right direction.  But it's not nearly enough.  Reinforced locked doors between the cockpit and passenger compartment along with armed pilots would probably prevent another use of the planes as bombs.  However, this leaves the passengers as sheep for the slaughter.  

The Sky Marshal program is being re-instituted.  Again, all well and good.  It should never have been stopped in the first place.  However, three things strike me immediately:
1)  Vetting and training these people will take time.
2)  There won't be sufficient funds or enough Sky Marshals hired to begin to cover all the major commercial flights.
3)  Commuter flights won't even be considered for the Sky Marshal program, but these planes make fine bombs for smaller targets than the WTC, and there are no lockable bulkheads on these little commuter planes.

Let me posit this possible solution.  Firstly, let's allow any sworn officer to bring his/her personal sidearm aboard any flight he/she boards.  These officers would have to be in mufti, not uniform, or the terrorists would know who to target first.  Their sidearms would need to be loaded with frangible ammunition.  They, ideally, should be furnished by their departments, from material supplied by the FAA, with diagrams for the major types of aircraft they are likely to fly on, so they would know where the critical equipment on board the planes were, so as not to damage it during fire.  Secondly, there is a large, untapped force available, in the form of retired officers, ex-military combat vets, and ex-Federal officers who could be rapidly updated on background checks, and who are probably still current on firearms and combat.  Many hold concealed-carry permits now.  Folks in this category who volunteered to undergo updates on background information for clearances, (in many cases this has already been done for CCW permits), re-qualify with their personal sidearms, and take some training on the aircraft types, could be rapidly certified by the FAA, and be furnished credentials so that they could take their personal sidearms with frangible ammo on board any aircraft.  

This would, at minimal cost and loss of time, not only swell the ranks of the Sky Marshal program, but would cost nothing for ongoing protection.  Had there been passengers in this program aboard the hijacked flights, the World Trade Center disaster would never have occurred.

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