Experts Say They Could Be Better

Every commercial plane flying in the United States will have bulletproof cockpit doors by next week. But is that enough to stop a determined skyjacker? Airline security experts say the design doesn't provide the best possible protection.

The Federal Aviation Administration requires that cockpit doors be locked during flight. But there are times when a pilot may open the door - to look at wing surfaces, use the bathroom and change flight crews during a long trip. That leaves the possibility the cockpit could be rushed by a hijacker.

A Locked Door Does No Good When Opened

"It's a barrier when it's closed, it's an entry when it's open," said Capt. Steve Luckey, chairman of the Air Line Pilots Association's national security committee.

The need to open cockpit doors was one reason pilots lobbied for guns in the cockpit, Luckey said. Under a test program, about 48 pilots will begin training to carry weapons while flying commercial passenger planes this month. Thousands more could be carrying weapons by the end of the year.

Kevlar?

Luckey would like to see another safety measure - a Kevlar curtain that acts as a secondary barrier when the cockpit door is opened. He said the curtain would delay a terrorist long enough for passengers to attack him.

Israel's national airline, El Al, has among the most stringent security requirements. All its planes have double doors separated by a narrow hallway, said Offer Einav, former security director for the airline. Pilots must close one door before opening the other, he said.

That might not work for US planes, Einav said: The narrow-body planes used for most domestic U.S. flights can't accommodate a double-door system, and there's a matter of stringency. "How strongly are they going to impose the law of flying with a closed door, and are they going to enforce it?" Einav said.

Before the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackings, cockpit doors were designed to provide a quiet office environment for pilots. After the attacks, Congress decided cockpit doors should be designed to protect pilots from attackers. In the months after the terror attacks, airlines reinforced the existing cockpit doors with metal bars. But last year an unruly passenger on a flight from Miami to Buenos Aires managed to kick in a small breakaway panel across the bottom of the door and put his head into the cockpit before a co-pilot clubbed him with an ax.

The airline industry was given until this Wednesday to install the new doors in every passenger aircraft with 20 or more seats. FAA spokesman Greg Martin said the deadline will be met. The new door withstands bullets and small explosives and can resist a force equivalent to an NFL linebacker hitting it at Olympic sprinter speed, said Jim Proulx, a Boeing Company spokesman.

FMI: www.tsa.dot.gov