Alternatives to the arming of pilots range from improving security on the ground to unarmed combat and initiating an aerobatic sequence. Aeros in a 747 at 33000 feet sounds decidedly risky. Unarmed combat is best left to the SAS. I don't know whether the advocates of better airport security have yet realised, but all the publicity about security from our various governments is not to make our skies safer, but to mollify the travelling public. They like to think that something is being done and our politicians will not disappoint them.
The reality is that now all our nailclippers have been taken off us, the only people on the aeroplane with any weapons are the terrorists. Nice to see our governments making someone's job safer, even if it is not ours. Wouldn't want to see a terrorist being attacked by some nailclipper wielding
granny.
An organisation with the resources of Al Queda would have no difficulty fashioning weapons that could pass through security in the spines of briefcases. The next phase will be to ban all hand baggage. Once the terrorist has pulled his kevlar knife out of the lapel of his suit, we will then have to walk through security in the buff. Eventually, the simple straightforward answer will look so obvious. We shall arm the flight deck. Why didn't we think of that before we lost another couple of hulls to terrorist action?
The PC brigade are going to kill more of us with their blinkered views. Keep it simple. Give me a gun.
Incidentally, I am a European, or more accurately, a Brit.