The recent arrest of a Northwest Airlines pilot found with a loaded handgun in his carry-on luggage raises the question of how airport security workers can identify those pilots authorized by the government to have a gun.
How about doing it the same way that Air Marshalls and other armed LEOs are IDed and handled? No need to reinvent the wheel.
Among the questions: How does the gun get into the cockpit? Does the pilot carry it through the airport? If so, what happens in countries with stricter gun-control laws than the United States? Who supplies the weapon? What kind of weapon will be issued? And how much training should be required?
See above......
Money is another unknown. ............ "The pilots don't want to pay for it, the airlines don't want to pay for it and the government doesn't want to pay for it,'' said Paul Hudson, executive director of the Aviation Consumer Action Project, which advocates airline safety and security.
How about reducing the cast of the "Greatest Security Show on Earth" by a few thousand? Do we really need that many overpaid, ex Burger King workers standing around the pilot errrr, passenger screening checkpoints?
The airlines strongly oppose the idea, fearing a weapon could fall into the wrong hands, accidentally injure a passenger or cause a plane crash if a stray bullet struck a fuel line or navigational equipment.
The airlines don't seem to worry when Barney Fife, Dept of Education, Postal workers, Dept of Agriculture and the myriad of other folks (most with dubious reasons), carry firearms on the aircraft.
The big airlines' trade group, the Air Transport Association, argues that stronger cockpit doors and the presence of air marshals provide protection against hijackings.
What happens when there are no marshalls aboard, and a fraction of the amount of C-4 that Richard Reid had removes the "stronger" door from it's mounts?
Airport security does not necessarily equate to airplane security.