However, Cyrano makes an important point: The pilot could deliver guns, weapons, etc. to another player past the security checkpoint.
Armed LEOS, can too. So can rampers, cleaners, gate agents, provisioners, etc.
A fictional scenario IF pilots weren't searched: Air Egypt pilot, (who happens to be a closet Islamic Fundi radical in his spare time) smuggles guns into the boarding gate area at JFK. Passes gun(s) off to other radicals who then board an American Airlines flight and hijacks it to oblivion.
Here's a factual scenario. Ground ops folks aren't searched (even now). On 12/7/1987, a recently fired USAir ground ops person uses his unsurrendered ID to go in the back door at LAX with a 44 magnum. He boards PSA flight 1771 as a revenue pax, which, by no coincidence, the ex supervisor that fired him is also on. After takeoff, Mr. ground ops gets up, kills his boss, breaks into the cockpit, kills both pilots, then himself, while horrified passengers look on. The BAC 146 breaks up as it approaches mach 1, and little bits of aluminum, plastic and 50+ people rain down on Paso Robles CA. As a result of this incident, passengers understandably cried for better security.
What they got was:
Airline Employees must surrender their ID when they are no longer employed by the airline (Makes perfectly good sense)
Individual Airports had to come up with an FAA approved SIDA (secure ID access) plan for all employees that have access to the ramp (Another good idea, if done correctly)
And, finally, Pilots and flight attendants (but, ironically, not ground ops folks) must submit to passenger screening. (makes absolutely NO sense when viewed in context)
At first, the reason given for the last part was that since pilots and fa's travel to many airports, and SIDA badges are only issued for individual airports, then they couldn't be verified as employees due to the differences in the SIDA programs around the nation. ALPA and other unions tried for YEARS to get some sort of universal SIDA ID for flight crews, especially since we not only go through the local SIDA procedure at our bases, we are much more thoroughly vetted as aircrew to begin with. Why we are still not provided with some sort of biometric ID is beyond me, given the damage that can be done if someone is able to impersonate a pilot all the way to the cockpit. Even Disney World uses biometrics to identify annual pass holders.
IMHO, the reason that we have not gotten any type of universal aircrew ID is due to the eyewash factor of having flight crews screened in front of passengers. Many folks see an easily recognized, authority figure going through the same rigamorole as they are, and conclude that things must be really secure, if they are even checking the pilots (never giving the unseen minions on the ramp/behind the gate podiums, in ops, in provisioning, in mx, cleaners etc etc etc, a second thought).
Or, substitute an American pilot whose family is being held hostage at home by bad guys ("give this package to Mr. X or your kids get it")
Why not just do the same to one of the numerous, armed leo's that are constantly riding around on airliners?
It's easy for us to screen/investigate American pilots, baggage handlers, etc. Mystifies me why we don't screen ground personnel. I guess they made a determination that the foreign pilot Islamic threat was greater than domestic Islamic threat.
I agree that it would be easy to screen ground ops folks, and I am also mystified as to why they are still not screened. As I watched the news on 9/11, my very first thought when the second plane hit was that a ground ops type smuggled weapons into the secure area in BOS. In actuality, they might have done just that. Just because they COULD have carried box cutters on board doesn't mean that they did. Why call attention to yourself like that when your brother can get a job as a cleaner, and place them under a garbage bag in a restroom in the terminal, minimizing the risk of having to carry them past "security"?
IMHO, the only reason that we are still screened has all to do with eyewash and public perception. Ironically, all screening crews does is inconvenience the paying passengers even more when 10 flightcrew jump to the front of the long "security" lines.