Armed Pilots (Merged)

[T_richard]

Good Morning All

Once the terrorist is on the plane, the probability of a safe and uneventful flight is quickly approaching ZERO. According to the APSA which sounds like a offshoot of the US airline pilots union, 25% of weapons carried on a plane by testers are getting through. They have a pretty picture of a synthetic dagger that would certainly get my attention if held to my neck. So the plane is in the air and there are from one to ? number terrorists onboard. They have a plan, they have weapons, they're ready to go. IMHO the scenarios run basically something like this: Terrorists launch attack-

F/A is armed, (s)he is trapped behind a cart, in a tight corner and disarmed with(out) prejudice. threat remains

Undercover skymarshall(s) respond to threat, if all goes according to training the terrorists are subdued and threat is removed. If skymarshalls meet Murphy's Law and they don't eliminate the entire threat, terrorists are about to seize control of the plane.
IF, they can get into the cockpit. They may use live hostages, sequential killings, a sledge hammer, C4 or what ever they have planed for to get that door open. If the pilot is unarmed, the entire plane now becomes their weapon. The Good Guys lose at this point.

But.. if the pilot is armed, the terrorists have to eliminate one more serious obstacle (the pilot) to take the plane. The pilot can't be taken by surpise like the F/A since (s)he heard all the commotion in the cabin, (s)he has had at least a couple of seconds to prepare because the T's have to blow, pry, intimidate the door open.

The point is the a/c gets one more chance.

Now I am not a pilot or an counter terroism expert, but it doesn't take a genius to sketch out the rough plan, I understand that the devil is in the details. But I do believe this, The more chances you have to take the plane back, the luckier you can get and if the T's take the plane it isn't going to be a "catch and release" affair. Every soul onboard will probably die.