West Coast
I'm sure you are missing the point deliberately. The lone nutter is easily subdued, witness the many recent incidents, from attempted shoe-bombs to mentally ill Africans. Especially now that most pax are aware that without their intervention, they may well all die.
The organised group is completely different animal. I'm sure you must know this. I HOPE you do...
Regarding doors, we aren't really polarised at all. I too think the present doors are woefully inadequate, badly designed and a safety hazard, and have said so officially (via ASR) several times. I think the incidence of failure is low- in the time since they were introduced, there haven't been that many failures. I haven't had a door failure, but I have had an engine fail in that time.
However, I would far rather have the door than sky marshals. Put the money spent on them, into strengthening the door and surrounding structure.
Perhaps if anything demonstrates the difference between the culture on either side of the Atlantic, it is this:
I wonder what info your union is providing you with, or even worse I hope its not the builder of the door providing you with your tech info.
You see, over here the information comes from the government, not the union. The technical specification for the door likewise comes from the government. I can't imagine why you have to rely on a union for this info.
In your scenario the baddies go directly to a door that I know can be breached rapidly while others keep the pax at bay.
Thank you for making my point for me. How many terrorists are we talking about here? And how many sky marshals? BTW prepare yourself for attacks from those reading this that think you just gave the bad guys a lesson in tactics....
No, I don't have a lot of faith in the (present) doors, but I have less in sky marshals. Especially as there are unlikely to be many of them, for the reasons
Wino states:
the costs of carrying them are staggering as we are not remeimbursed ticket expenses for the, and with Yeild management programs that airlines use to maximize revenue, the last few seats on an aircraft are by far the most valuble. And since they don't know when the skymarshals will be there they don't know when they can sell them and when they can't...
What is interesting to me is that what we are
really polarised about is the US attitude to firearms, ie more is better. "Althold" makes the point well- our legal (and social) framework and law does not allow the same freedom to bear arms, and that has implications for the Captain, should anytinhg happen on a flight- particularly if somebody gets killed by a sky marshal. None of our American friends have yet addressed that point, and it is an important one as much of the present difficulty stems from that difference in thinking. Doors are a side issue. Maybe Michael Moore is the only sane American...
As Wino has chosen not to respond with details of what union he belongs to, I'll assume that was all bluster.
Must be time for Danny to step in again, I see willy-waving is happening again (but about Northern Ireland this time).