Armed Co-Pilots???
 

I was talking with a friend yesterday and he was telling me that a little known fact was that up until 1994, co-pilots on commercial airlines were armed. Supposedly, Bill Clinton signed some policies into practice that ended this.

Does anyone know anything about this? Details?

-Art

(Personally, I think that in a hijacking situation, the pilot should simply depressurize the cabin and disable the oxygen masks. Knock everyone out fast. Sure, you might lose a couple of people but it beats the alternative. )

No, this is not true. It was not uncoomon for pilots to be armed back in the old days, but has been prohibited for some time.

We have been going through the same security as the passnegers ever since 1988-89, after a fired PSA RAMP worker entered a secure area with a .44 magnum, and got on an airplane. He killed the pilots on the airplane, causing the airplane to crash.

The FAA's solution to this problem was to make all flight crews go through security screening, while the ramp folks STILL get to bypass.........