True about El Al security having guns on board and on the ground at all stations. Not true for El Al pilots, they are there to fly the plane
and don't need guns.........and for Earl, ALL El Al pilots have served in the military and recieved similar training as yours if not better
T-Richard,
indeed you read GlueBall's post correctly. Although not "air locked" you must close one to be able to open the other, going in or going out. The double doors are not just "reinforced", the whole bulhead and double doors are armored, or in other words and without getting too much into certain details, bullets would not do much damage to such a system. Therefore no need for the operating crew to carry guns. That's the job of the fine young men that are strategically placed in the back on every flight
Just a quick recap on the last hijack attempt on El Al: Sept 1970's El Al 707 hijack attempt was foiled by the inability of the hijackers (Patrick Arguello and Leila Khaled) to enter the flt deck (even though they had hand grenades and guns, not "box cutters"), the quick thinking of Capt Uri Barlev (clicking the AP off and pushing the nose forward to destabilize Arguello & Khaled giving an oportunity to one of the fine young men in the back to shoot Arguello dead) and the tremendous courage of purser Uri Cohen who took 7 bullets while taking care of Khaled (he survived). The A/C landed safely in London and Khaled was handed over to the British authorities while in the mean time Swissair, PanAm and TWA were unfortunately succesfully hijacked.
Was that too much info MetroMan?
Pat
(Ktanim aval Hazakim!)