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.

FMI: www.secure-skies.org