The discussion on what to do with perons trying to get unauthorizd access to the cockpit with whatever intention is a very easy one to have on the internet. different thing however is how one will respond when the "real" thing happens. Its all to easy to tell hero stories on how to act and fight yourself to death if necessary to prevent anyone from taking over control etc. Its an "on the spot" decision and no-one can EVER say that a crew made the wrong decision or was acting wrongly simply because you were not there to live thru it i beleive. I am a captain and certainly hope I will never encounter such a thing. How would I respond?.... I simply dont know. I hope I have the ability to take the right decisions if such a thing would happen to me but i simply dont know.... people respond very differently in different situations and cannot and should not be judged for their decisions when in such life threatening situations where the lives of many are dependant on their decisiveness.
As far as the closed door policy is concerned. I beleive that whatever happens in the world I would like to live my life in reasonable comfort and that means that I do want the cabin crew bringing me my coffee and meals etc. We need to open the door for that and those moments are the vulnarable ones, i realise that. so be it. The mere fact that the terrorists have us change our ways of life in the way that some of us would recommend us to do is in my view a victory to them already. I for one do not like to give myself up that way and continue to not let them influence my living comfort. I will not spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder, restricting my freedom for security reasons. The threat has become a part of my life ...like for anyone in this world i guess.... but i will not give the terrorists the pleasure of destroying my "joy de vive".
I do beleive in following procedures in an airplane however I am also the captain and therefore tested to be capable to make decisions in that same airplane... like when and if I want my coffee...or when and if I want to go to the toilet...
