In article ,
Jim Yanik wrote:

"Dudley Henriques" wrote in
nk.net:




I would suggest, in the event of an attempted hijacking, the days of
the passengers sitting passively by, have long gone by !!! There is
no alternative than to take some kind of action, regardless.

BMC
From what I'm hearing in the airline pilot community, this is the
current
thinking out there. Much concentration is going into a focus on large
long range cargo flights because of exactly this scenario.
I can not envision a situation after 9-11 where the pax just sit there
and allow the aircraft to be taken by people with anything less than
guns. The current thinking seems to be that airport security, as bad
as it is, will catch the guns and explosives, leaving nothing but
smuggled hand weapons like the ones used before as on board options
for the hijackers. I sure hope this is right! You never know about
these things. They do a model on every conceivable scenario; then it;s
the one they missed that is executed. I'm also hearing that it will be
an on course target rather than an off course target that's chosen,
since a transponder hit by center or any course deviation from filed
past a specific parameter will trigger a fighter rolling off the alert
pads. Dudley Henriques
International Fighter Pilots Fellowship
Commercial Pilot/ CFI Retired
For personal email, please replace
the z's with e's.
dhenriquesATzarthlinkDOTnzt




Well,to date,I've read about two separate persons bringing handguns aboard
commercial flights undetected,and one incident of a Federally licensed
gov't employee leaving their loaded handgun on their seat when they
deplaned(discovered by another honest passenger).
Then there was the guy who air-freighted himself cross-country.(that's a
doozy!)

And cargo flights will not have the passengers to fight off a hijack
attempt.


But people think that having armed pilots is too big a hazard to risk.
They'll trust -anything- except that.


The flight deck crews DO have a weapon -- the fire axe. I know a number
of captains who would be willing to give a splitting headache to the
first hijacker attempting to come through the door.