From: "Neal Knox Alerts List"
nealknox@nealknox.com
November 28, 2002

Commercial airline pilots, and all of us who pressed for them to be armed to prevent another 9/11 skyjacking, had reason to cheer when the President signed the Homeland Security Bill this week.

The Bush Administration is mandated to have set up a Flight Deck Officer training program by the end of February. But given the fact that Transportation Security Administration Director James Loy and the airline industry are opposed, and the fact that TSA gets to set all the rules and requirements, you can bet that only a few of the most determined pilots will have a gun in their cockpits by spring.

Thomas Quinn, director of the Skymarshal program and described as a "key adviser" to TSA, says the training will involve a lot more than just lining up the sights and squeezing off a shot -- and that it will be more than the 48 hours of training pilots want.

I suspect he and TSA will push for training equal or greater than that set up for (and no longer required of) Skymarshals -- although its far more difficult to control a terrorist in a large aircraft cabin than to prevent one from getting through the small door into the cockpit.

Put it this way: If pilots are armed, why would Mr. Quinn's Skymarshals be needed? The No. 1 rule of bureaucracy is to protect their own turf, and expand their budgets and manpower so Mr. Quinn can be counted on to be certain that few pilots are armed.

Nevertheless, unlike most laws, the mere signing of the armed pilots provision will cause Al Qaeda to look for softer targets -- like unarmed 747's carrying cargo rather than passengers.