bluemic
23rd Sep 2001, 08:42
One of my compatriots wrote this on another forum. I think it will be of interest to all, even though slightly localized...
You can take away everybody's nail clippers at security, but with the travelling public reduced to biting their nails, the only real pacifier is going to be the introduction of Sky Marshalls, full-time, all the time.
Stun guns on the flight deck just aren't going to cut the mustard. If one of these glorified camel drivers rolls through the cockpit door, you won't have time to get the safety off, never mind aim the damn thing, unless you sit on the pedestal facing backwards for the whole trip - you're only going to wind up electrifying the other pilot, or yourself, into a coma by mistake.
Steel doors are nice, but the paying passengers in the back get to watch you park yourself all nice and comfy cozy behind a half inch of titanium while they get to sit in the back and look around at all the suspects who even remotely look like they just crawled out of a bunker in Iraq, had a shave and a shower, slapped on some deodorant, and decided to go on holidays. That just ain't going to sell tickets, folks.
There are zillions of still fairly young retired RCMP, Provincial, and Municipal Police Officers, who happen to have a whole career's worth of experience dealing with these geeks in their arsenal of expertise, who would jump at the chance to augment their pensions with a regular flying block, complete with perks like travel benefits. Ocean liners have security, hotels have security, trains have security, why not jets?? And I don't mean the kind of security where the guy has an ominous looking walkie-talkie to throw. Sky Marshalls need to be heavily armed.
For the same price as installing a steel door, the DOT could approve another bulkhead Marshall seat on every airplane. If you paid a Marshall 50 grand a year plus travel perks, and hired about 600 Marshalls for an airline this size, for the coverage, you'd pay 30 million in tax deductible wages. If that level of highly advertised security only gave you 1 additional passenger per flight, at 400 departures per day, and an average 250 per ticket, you'd generate 36 million in revenue.
Another way to get Marshalls in the back end on every flight would be to offer limited pass benefits to every police force in Canada. If there's an empty standby seat in the back, why not. Work out an acceptable boarding priority, federal clearance to join the plan, charge them the service charge, and make sure they're armed to the teeth.
In my opinion, the first airline to announce and advertise Sky Marshalls is going to get back the big time market share. Marshalls are way, way, long overdue in this industry. You just watch. AMR or United, or one of the other large ones is going to do it really quick. The only sure way to stop the fanatics flat is to let them face the prospect of saying good morning to the hollow end of a nice shiny new semi-automatic Glock.
You can take away everybody's nail clippers at security, but with the travelling public reduced to biting their nails, the only real pacifier is going to be the introduction of Sky Marshalls, full-time, all the time.
Stun guns on the flight deck just aren't going to cut the mustard. If one of these glorified camel drivers rolls through the cockpit door, you won't have time to get the safety off, never mind aim the damn thing, unless you sit on the pedestal facing backwards for the whole trip - you're only going to wind up electrifying the other pilot, or yourself, into a coma by mistake.
Steel doors are nice, but the paying passengers in the back get to watch you park yourself all nice and comfy cozy behind a half inch of titanium while they get to sit in the back and look around at all the suspects who even remotely look like they just crawled out of a bunker in Iraq, had a shave and a shower, slapped on some deodorant, and decided to go on holidays. That just ain't going to sell tickets, folks.
There are zillions of still fairly young retired RCMP, Provincial, and Municipal Police Officers, who happen to have a whole career's worth of experience dealing with these geeks in their arsenal of expertise, who would jump at the chance to augment their pensions with a regular flying block, complete with perks like travel benefits. Ocean liners have security, hotels have security, trains have security, why not jets?? And I don't mean the kind of security where the guy has an ominous looking walkie-talkie to throw. Sky Marshalls need to be heavily armed.
For the same price as installing a steel door, the DOT could approve another bulkhead Marshall seat on every airplane. If you paid a Marshall 50 grand a year plus travel perks, and hired about 600 Marshalls for an airline this size, for the coverage, you'd pay 30 million in tax deductible wages. If that level of highly advertised security only gave you 1 additional passenger per flight, at 400 departures per day, and an average 250 per ticket, you'd generate 36 million in revenue.
Another way to get Marshalls in the back end on every flight would be to offer limited pass benefits to every police force in Canada. If there's an empty standby seat in the back, why not. Work out an acceptable boarding priority, federal clearance to join the plan, charge them the service charge, and make sure they're armed to the teeth.
In my opinion, the first airline to announce and advertise Sky Marshalls is going to get back the big time market share. Marshalls are way, way, long overdue in this industry. You just watch. AMR or United, or one of the other large ones is going to do it really quick. The only sure way to stop the fanatics flat is to let them face the prospect of saying good morning to the hollow end of a nice shiny new semi-automatic Glock.