Pilots eager for gun training

August 26, 2003
Cincinnati Post

Frustrated pilots are calling today for a speedup in training and screening so they can take guns into the cockpits.
Two pilot groups were scheduled to hold a press conference today at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in conjunction with similar conferences at five other U.S. airports. They will call for the acceleration of the Federal Flight Deck Officer program that was enacted last year as part of legislation creating the Department of Homeland Security.

"Air Marshals and increased screening provide necessary layers of security, but armed pilots provide the first line of deterrence and the last line of defense to acts of terrorism with airplanes," said U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., who will take part in the press conference.

Bunning and the pilots accuse the Transportation Security Administration, which oversees airport security, of deliberately stalling the process of arming pilots.

The TSA "must do better to implement the program," Bunning said. "In the nearly two years since 9-11, America has taken great strides to better protect herself from terrorist threats. But there are still holes in our homeland defense that must be filled."

Leon Laylagian, representing the Coalition of Airline Pilots Association, which represents more than 21,000 pilots, said it was compelled to act publicly by reports that al-Qaida terrorists are continuing to target commercial jets.

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"Things have not been going as we had hoped, and the catalyst has been the media reports on al-Qaida's renewed efforts to hijack commuter airliners," Laylagian said.

"The TSA has forced the (firearms) program to conform to their own bureaucratic image of a weak, perfunctory program in reluctant compliance with a law they did not like in the first place," said Denny Breslin, spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association, which represents 11,000 American Airlines pilots. "The TSA has made the program so onerous for pilots with ludicrous levels of background and psychological testing that it is obvious they are trying to intentionally discourage participation."

The groups said the rate of pilot firearms training is about 50 a week, or 2,600 a year. They estimate that it would take 15 years to train all 40,000 pilots who want the training.

"First and foremost, they need to accelerate the training rate. They've dragged their feet from the beginning," Laylagian said.

He also wants the background and psychological tests pilots must pass to receive a gun permit to be eased to conform with the requirements of federal air marshals.

"Pilots do not wish to eliminate the screening process; they just want the process not be in excess of regular law enforcement," Laylagian said. "If we're not trusted for the accountability of having our hands on the controls of commercial jetliners, we should be grounded. We're already armed with the ultimate weapons."

Diana Banister, an Airline Pilots Security Alliance spokeswoman, said Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky was one of a handful of airports chosen for the press conferences because the airport is in Bunning's home territory.

Bunning sponsored an amendment to a bill to allow cargo plane pilots to be armed with guns.

That measure has been passed out of the Senate finance committee and awaits a full Senate vote. No timeline for the vote has been set.

Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky airport is a Delta hub and is heavily used by DHL and other cargo carriers.

"(Bunning) certainly has a stake in seeing the cargo pilots included. Cargo pilots are very grateful to the senator for his support of our end of the industry. We're just thrilled that he saw very quickly the gaping hole that was generated by the exclusion of cargo pilots," Laylagian said.

OFCC PAC Commentary:
These pilots are already trusted with the lives of thousands of passagengers each week, millions of dollars in aircraft which could be used (again) as weapons of mass destruction. The Transportation Security Administration is guilty of gross negligence and obstructing the will of Congress by continuing to delay the Federal Flight Deck Officer program. The airlines are no less responsible - struggling near bankruptcy, yet paying millions of dollars to fight a program 75% of their paying customers say they want.