"High Calibre" pilots?!
Pilots press for faster arms training
Tuesday, August 26, 2003 Posted: 12:17 PM EDT (1617 GMT)
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Airline pilots are stepping up their campaign to pressure the Bush administration to train more commercial pilots to carry guns in the cockpit.
Fewer than 200 pilots have been deputized to carry weapons since November, when Congress ordered the government to start a program for pilots who want to be armed when they fly.
Capt. Bob Lambert, president of the Airline Pilots' Security Alliance, called the figure outrageous.
"Let's get the pilots armed in enough quantities to serve as an adequate deterrent," said Lambert, whose grass-roots organization includes pilots from all the major U.S. airlines.
The pilots are planning news conferences Tuesday at airports in Miami, Washington, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Cincinnati to urge the Transportation Security Administration to pick up the pace of training.
Pilots lobbied Congress hard last year, arguing that guns would allow them to supplement air marshals, who cover only a small percentage of the 35,000 daily flights in the United States. The TSA, seeking to address a nearly $1 billion budget shortfall, froze air marshal hiring in May.
The agency had opposed arming pilots, believing tighter airport security, bulletproof cockpit doors and more vigilant passengers made it unnecessary. Critics also said adding guns to airplanes was inherently dangerous.
But after it became obvious that Congress would support the program, TSA chief James Loy reluctantly went along with it. Pilots say the agency now is dragging its feet because it didn't want the program in the first place.
TSA spokesman Brian Turmail rejected that claim. He said the agency moved quickly to create a training program and application process for pilots, and now that those elements are established, the pace of training will pick up.
Full classes are booked through the end of September, he said, adding that the number of pilots in each class is kept secret for security reasons.
Classes conducted weekly
But Lambert said at the current rate of training about 50 pilots a week, it will take 15 years to arm the estimated 40,000 pilots who want to carry guns.
Pilots who volunteer for the program take a week of classes, weapons instruction and hand-to-hand combat drills at a federal law enforcement training center. Background checks and psychological testing also are conducted.
The first 44 pilots to complete the program were designated "flight deck officers" on April 19 and began flying with weapons. The second class finished in July, and now classes are conducted weekly.
An upcoming move to a training center in Artesia, New Mexico, from Glynco, Georgia, will allow the agency to train more pilots, Turmail said.
Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Kentucky, will join pilots at Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport and urge Congress to let cargo pilots carry guns. They were dropped from the original legislation authorizing the program.
Former Rep. Bob Barr, R-Georgia, will speak in support of the pilots at Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport.
"The government is throwing roadblocks in the way of fulfilling what was a very clear congressional mandate," Barr said. "If the White House would simply make a clear statement that this must be done, it dramatically improves the chances of it happening."
House aviation subcommittee Chairman John Mica, R-Florida, wants the TSA to let the private sector run the program and to drop the psychological testing. Lambert said the testing deters some pilots from signing up for the program.
Turmail said testing is necessary to make sure pilots are psychologically able to use lethal force and then fly a plane.