AARON KARP / WASHINGTON DC
Initial group are packing pistols following 48h of training
Forty-four US commercial airline pilots were cleared last week to carry guns in flight on domestic services. This move signifies the operational launch of the USA's controversial flightdeck defence programme.
This group of pilots, who have completed 48h of training and were issued with 0.40 calibre semi-automatic pistols, is known as "the prototype" class of gun-toting flightcrew.
The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which initially resisted arming pilots, is administering the programme that was devised last year by Congress. While tens of thousands of pilots are technically eligible to participate in the programme, the TSA plans to take its time before it implements the scheme on a wide-scale basis.
According to strict TSA guidelines, the pilots can only wear the guns on their person when they are in the cockpit and the flightdeck door is closed and locked. When in public or walking through an airport, the pilot must keep the pistol in a securely locked box that must be hidden inside a "nondescript bag".
Armed pilots will go though "specialised" security procedures in airports similar to those undergone by US federal air marshals and armed federal law enforcement officers travelling on commercial flights, says the TSA.
Only while inside a cockpit can the pilots legally remove their guns from the locked boxes, says the TSA. The agency adds that the pistols can only be fired "to thwart a potential breach of the flightdeck". Cockpits are now protected by hardened, ballistics-proof doors.
In the event of a security incident during a flight, the pilots are explicitly prohibited from leaving the cockpit to engage in armed confrontation in the aircraft cabin. They have "a very specific and focused role and jurisdiction", says the TSA, emphasising that "this is strictly for cockpit defence".
The TSA adds: "We would like to take weeks, if not months, to study the prototype class," explaining that it will be the "summer at the earliest" before a second group of pilots is armed.
Source: Flight International
