Proof That There's More Than One Opinion Out There
ANN recognizes the right of all airmen of good will to hold
opinions, whether those opinions agree with ANN's impeccable logic,
or not. We enjoy being the voice of reason; but we also believe
aviation is big enough for all our bretheren. Especially Juan
Jim�nez, by the way, whose insights and knowledge, tenacity
and good writing have been part of ANN almost since the very
beginning. If ever there were a "man of good will," he's Juan. So,
we don't always agree -- so what?
It was our idea to publish
Juan's letter yesterday, to put
forward a viewpoint we don't hold editorially, because, as always,
Juan comes by his positions honestly. What followed was a bit of
mail, of a contrary opinion. Here's a couple examples:
WHOA! Where did you find that character, Juan
Jim�nez? He is too rabid to be running loose... put him back
in his cage. Scary. If the Captain-of-the-Ship wants a gun, give it
to him/her. --Gaylord
Sorry, Gaylord. Mere "want" won't cut it. As for putting people
in cages, that's the government's job, and we don't wish to
compete.
Sir, I have been a commercial pilot for 30 years. And,
during 18 years of that, I was a law enforcement officer. For most
of those 18 years, I was a certified firearms instructor and SWAT
team member. In my opinion, I would much rather see money spent on
secure cockpit doors and Sky Marshals rather than arming
pilot. [They're doing that, Jim. The arming of pilots is for
when those measures aren't sufficient --ed.]
It takes a lot of time to train
someone in the proper use of a firearm for close quarter combat
(which is what you would have inside a cockpit or cabin). Even
then, the chances of missing the target during a stressful
situation are very high. [...and the downside to needing to
hit the target, but not having anything to hit it with, is
lower?]
If an intruder came busting thru the cockpit door, the crew
would not have the time, or room, to get to their firearms, turn in
a crowded cockpit, and engage the suspect [unless they heard
him coming, which would be likely if the cockpit door reinforcement
were any good].
Getting back to the time required to properly train, when
would the pilots have time for this training? [They're flying
how many hours a month?] I am currently an airline
dispatcher, and I know most of our pilots would not want to give up
their time off [then you're all set -- the program is
voluntary]. I would much rather see a highly trained, plain
clothed, Sky Marshall in the front of the passenger cabin who is
ready to handle a suspect, and who is not having to worry about
flying the aircraft [assuming there are Marshals on every
flight, of course -- which there aren't, of course].
One problem though, with the low
maximum age restriction currently on the Sky Marshall program,
there are a lot of highly trained law enforcement and military
personnel out there that are deemed too old for the job even though
the pilots in the cockpit are a lot older [yeah -- those
pilots are nearly 60 -- much too feeble to do anything
responsible]. Respectfully, Jim
Note: as for the allegation of pending TSA action that spawned
Juan's letter, we contacted the Airline Pilots' Security Alliance,
to ask them for any verification that the TSA did, indeed, plan
these additional, intrusive, ineffective, and superfluous stalling
actions. They did not reply -- so all we have, so far, that the TSA
is planning this, comes from the TPSA. The TSA continues its policy
of not answering our requests for information.