2 November 2002


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International Information Programs

Washington File
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01 November 2002

"Locking Cockpit Doors," by Senator Ernest Hollings

(Column from The American Legion Magazine, November 2002 edition) (360)

(begin byliner)

(This byliner by Ernest F. Hollings, United States Senator
(Democrat-South Carolina), first appeared in The American Legion
Magazine for November 2002 and is in the pubic domain. No
republication restrictions.)

Locking Cockpit Doors
Ernest F. Hollings

America can prevent another airplane hijacking by following the lead
of the Israeli airline El Al, which puts up impenetrable cockpit doors
with one rule: once the door is secured, it is never opened in flight.
Period.

Should a threatening disturbance in the cabin occur, as happened on
Sept. 11, no one can enter the cockpit. The plane will land as quickly
as possible, and the troublemakers will be taken off to jail.

No one has hijacked an El Al plane in 30 years. Last September, El
Al's chief pilot told me, "Even if my wife is being assaulted in the
cabin I do not open that door. I go straight to the ground, with law
enforcement waiting."

Securing the door solves many problems. No longer would you have to
worry about planes flying into the White House, the Empire State
Building or a nuclear power plant. No longer would you need to worry
about military jets flying overhead, ready to shoot you down.

And no longer would you need to worry about the debate of arming
pilots with pistols or stun guns. As far as I'm concerned, you could
put a machine gun in the cockpit - and the door would stay closed.

Imagine if terrorists tried attacking a plane with an armed pilot. A
flight attendant screams, "Open the door, he's strangling me!" The
pilot, feeling responsible to help, might get off a shot but would
instantly have a broken neck. And with the pilot's pistol the
terrorists would have command of the aircraft and control of any
passengers attempting to act like those on Flight 93 that crashed in
Pennsylvania.

Hunters know you lie still and get your heart rate down to fire
accurately. Would that be the case during a turbulent flight, with
terrorists busting through an open door? Absolutely not.

Washington has it wrong if it thinks pilots should be armed. Our focus
should be on protecting the security of airline passengers and people
on the ground. President Bush could order tomorrow that cockpit doors
be locked.

(end byliner)

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01 November 2002

"Arming Commercial Pilots," by Senator Conrad Burns

(Column from The American Legion Magazine, November 2002 edition) (370)

(begin byliner)

(This byliner by Conrad Burns, United States Senator
(Republican-Montana), first appeared in The American Legion Magazine
for November 2002 and is in the pubic domain. No republication
restrictions.)

Arming Commercial Pilots
Conrad Burns

I've never met a door that couldn't be opened nor a pilot who's ever
seen an air marshal.

Our faith is put in "fortified doors," a seemingly nonexistent army of
air marshals and, if all else fails, in-flight maneuvers to throw
terrorists off guard. Instead, we should be thinking like the kamikaze
terrorists these pilots could face. If people want to die hijacking
planes, it makes sense to this old cowboy that it would help if they
died before they get the job done.

That's why I co-authored a bill to create a voluntary program to arm
pilots and establish a training program for flight attendants. Deadly
force is the only language of deterrence a terrorist understands.

We are foolish to expect that security efforts will be 100-percent
effective 100 percent of the time, just as we are foolish to believe
in a perfectly impregnable door. A fortified door is not fortified
when the door is opened, just as it is when attendants open them to
bring pilots their meals. Rather than allow pilots to protect
themselves, their aircraft and passengers with guns, should the
government mandate that pilots abstain from eating? Once airborne,
American flights are virtually defenseless. There are only 1,000 air
marshals to service more than 30,000 flights a day in the United
States. To build up a force sufficient to man every flight we'd need
to create something nearly the size of the U.S. Marine Corps.

This is no time to be gun-shy about terrorism. We give our soldiers
guns and send them to Afghanistan, but we are prepared to let airline
pilots fend for the plane and passengers with their bare hands.

American soldiers aren't asked to fight terrorists with toys and
temerity. Let's give trained men and women the right to self defense.
And let's do that by using frangible ammunition, which disintegrates
on impact with a metal surface but is strong enough to take down a
terrorist. That's how the terror and the hijackings can end -- not
with a whimper, but a bang.

(Senator Burns is a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of
Montana.)

(end byliner)

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)