Predictably perhaps, Balpa is against the increased security:
6:02pm (UK)
'We don't Want Any Guns on Planes' Pilots Warn
By Sam Sheringham, PA News
The Government’s decision to deploy armed sky marshals on UK passenger flights has provoked an angry reaction among pilots, it emerged today.
The British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa) said it was disappointed not to have been consulted about measures which would do “more harm than good”.
The group said it would be advising pilots who were not happy with the new initiative not to fly their planes – a move which could cause chaos in the airline industry.
Balpa general-secretary Jim McAuslan said: “We take security seriously. We will not put passengers or aircraft at risk.
“But we cannot agree with the Government’s decision to put armed guards on aircraft as we believe this will do more harm than good.
“We do not want guns on planes.”
Mr McAuslan said he believed the Government should be investing in measures to improve security on the ground “where it matters most”.
If air marshals were to be placed on planes, his organisation would insist that the plane’s captain remained in command at all times.
Air safety expert Jonathan Crivon said the introduction of air marshals on UK passenger flights represented a logical step in the improvement of air safety.
Mr Crivon, director of Airline Safety and Protection (ASAP), said: “I think air marshals are a good thing as long as they are produced by specially trained units.”
He played down the dangers of having guns on passenger flights.
“Marshals have been operating on Israeli flights for years without any problems.
“Their weapons will be invisible and it will be impossible to tell who is the marshal.”
Today’s initiative is the latest move to increase security at UK airports and on planes in face of international terrorism threats.
The move follows developments in the United States where the government last week raised the national alert level one notch to orange, the second-highest, warning that the threat of attack was “perhaps greater now than at any point” since the September 11 atrocities in 2001.
In February more than 400 soldiers were drafted in to provide extra security at Heathrow Airport to combat terrorist threats to the capital.
The then Labour Party chairman John Reid said the threat to London was on the same scale as September 11.
“This is not a game,” he said at the time. “This is about a threat of the nature that massacred thousands of people in New York.”
The move at Heathrow prompted a number of UK airports, including Manchester and Cardiff, to step up security levels.
Police patrols were increased and spot checks were carried out by armed officers.
In December last year, the 15 EU nations agreed on a series of joint security measures at airports.
Member countries must now meet a number minimum standards while being allowed to set tougher security measures if they deem them necessary.
As recently as November, it emerged that Edinburgh Airport had failed an undercover Government security test.
Plain clothes officers from the UK Department of Transport got their bags, containing what one newspaper described as two “bomb-like” objects, past security staff and X-ray machines.
http://www.news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2346415