Armed airline pilots?

Question

Do you airline pilots think its a good idea to qualify to carry a firearm in the cockpit, especially since the air marshals are having staffing problems? Is the training sufficient? What if a 20 something co-pilot is armed and the 50+ grizzled vet captain is not/not qualified? does the captain have to defer all responsibility to the co-pilot?

Answer 1

A lot of the above answers fail to note that you have to go through an extensive backround and psychological test to qualify to be an armed pilot.  Whether or not you feel that they are needed today, the training is excellent, and the safety risks are small.  Armed pilots have the best safety record of any armed police force in the US.  And, having an armed first officer does not put him in charge, unless there is an attempted cockpit breech.  Then, the captain would still be in charge of the aircraft and land it, and the first officer would be in charge of defending the cockpit only.  That will never change.  Guns were actually carried on airliners for decades before they stopped them in the 70's.  They had no incidences of any pilots doing anything to endanger the aircraft, and one captain actually stopped a hijacker with his weapon.

Answer 2

Personally I think that terrorism on airliners is very unlikely to happen in the future. What happened during 9/11 is that the passengers remembered the previous hijackings: Stay put, look down and you'll increase your chances to survive. This was the first and hopefully only time airplanes were hijacked by suicidal madmen. In the future, any passenger knowing that he might become a living bomb, will do everything - and I mean everything! - before the hijackers reach the cockpit. So, I am against arm carrying crew members.

In a lighter tone: My father was pilot in the Belgian air force from 1938 to 1961. As an officer, he had a sword he wore during officials days like the national day's parade. As a child, I was always thinking of my father opening the window of his C-47 Dakota, C-54 Skymaster or C-119 Flying Boxcar and fight the enemy with his sword. So many years after, it still makes me smile to think of it.

Answer 3

NO! It's a terrible idea! Some of the worst pilots I know are the ones that want to carry a gun. I'm sorry, but let's be realistic here. So many people think that pilots are something special, and they're not. They are just like everyone else. I used to fly with a guy that had very serious mental problems. But, since you cannot fly as an airline pilot while on anti psychotics, anti depressants, or any other kind of drug that can make you normal, he had no choice but to fly and live with it.

Dangerous? YES... and it happens all the time. If I knew that guy or any of the other idiots I've know got a permit to carry a firearm, I'd refuse to fly with them.

However, there are even more pilots that I know that are totally competent and great people. But, if you let any of them have a gun, the bad ones will get one too.

Answer 4

The command pilot has authority without limitation--regardless of how others aboard are armed.

Answer 5

Lunge at the ba****ds and hope for the best ;)

on a serious not, no... as the first answerer said easy!!

Just secure the doors and concentrate on something with the doors, if you open that door you're fuked and so is everyone else..

Good day!

Answer 6

Lord knows why they think armed pilots is a safe option

All a terrorist has to do is get his commercial pilots license - get hired by an airline - use his 'right' to flying with a gun - get on board - shoot the co-pilot, lock the cockpit door and crash the plane

Easy