"Airline Pilots Adopt Their Own Security Measures"

Wednesday, September 26, 2001

Airline Pilots Adopt Their Own Security Measures
By JODI WILGOREN and LAURENCE ZUCKERMAN
The New York (NY) Times


David Butterfield, a US Airways pilot for 23 years, does not want a gun.

He is confident about the defensive arsenal already at his disposal:
depressurizing the aircraft, so everyone on board passes out.
Brandishing the ax normally reserved to clear debris in case of a crash
against an attacker. Or just manipulating the controls.

"If I have an armed hijacker on board, whether he has a gun or a knife
or he threatens he has a bomb, I'm going to maneuver the airplane to
keep him or her or them off balance," said Captain Butterfield, a Navy
veteran who flies A-320 Airbuses out of Charlotte, N.C. "I was a fighter
pilot for 16 years. I can bounce them off the ceiling like a yo-yo."

In the two weeks since the four hijackings that became the world's worst
terrorist attack, commercial airline pilots have begun to plot new
strategies for fighting back. After decades of training to respond
passively to hijackers' demands, pilots and their employers are now
adopting a more aggressive stance as potential soldiers in the United
States' new war.

As federal lawmakers consider a proposal by the largest pilots' union to
allow pilots to carry guns, along with ways to screen airport workers
more carefully and make cockpit doors impenetrable, individual pilots
have already adopted their own security measures. They are standing at
the door eyeballing passengers personally, creating new code words to
communicate with crews in emergencies, blocking entry to the cockpit
with jump seats or snack carts, and telling passengers how they might
protect themselves or disarm the enemy if the once- inconceivable were
to happen again.

Many pilots have ousted suspicious passengers, refused to fly out of
concern for who or what is on board, or diverted for emergency landings.

Since the attacks, pilots say they have seen a renewed confirmation of
their ultimate responsibility for the aircraft, an authority that many
felt had been eroded in recent years by the commercial interests of
their employers. Federal regulations explicitly state that an airline
captain has control of craft and crew "without limitation," but some
airlines, seeking to improve on-time performance, have tried to keep
airport gate agents in charge until a plane leaves the terminal.

"The pilot has absolute total command of that airplane just like any
captain has command of a ship," said Frederick Dubinsky, the head of the
pilots' union, the Air Line Pilots Association, at United. "He is in
command, period. If a passenger doesn't listen, he will go to jail. We
will not tolerate the loose behavior of the past."

Union officials said that American and United, the country's two largest
carriers, had recently tried to roll back the captain's authority to the
time he releases the brakes, rather than when he signs in for duty.

FedEx pilots recently succeeded in getting the Federal Aviation
Administration to overturn a company policy that made them subject to
discipline for exercising their right to bar certain employees from
riding in the cockpit jump seat. But Norman A. Patterson, a Miami pilot
who is chairman of the Pilot Authority Committee of the pilots' union at
American Airlines, said that "since Sept. 11, there seems to be a
resurgence on the part of the company to lean on the captain's
authority."

In interviews around the country yesterday, many pilots echoed Captain
Butterfield's hesitation about carrying weapons on board. They worried
that many pilots lack firearms training, that firing a gun at 35,000
feet could damage equipment and be disastrous, and that potential
hijackers could grab the guns either in the cockpit or in airport
terminals, past the security checkpoints.

Many pilots say they are also uncomfortable with the idea of armed
off-duty pilots on their airplanes.

"The danger from the gun would be greater than the safety," said one
Lufthansa pilot as he arrived at Logan International Airport in Boston
from Germany.

A pilot based at La Guardia Airport, who spoke on the condition that he
not be named, agreed that it would be more effective to hire armed,
plainclothes air marshals than to give pilots guns. 

"You have to be careful of unintended consequences," the pilot said,
imagining getting mugged for a pistol in an airport restroom. "If all of
a sudden anybody who's wearing a pilot's uniform might potentially be
carrying a weapon, I just think it's too easy for anybody who's trained
as a terrorist to relieve them of it."

Rather than wait for the airlines and the federal government to change
their policies, many pilots immediately changed their behavior after the
attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Some altered their
welcome-aboard message over the public address system: a pilot on a
United Airlines flight from Denver to Dulles International Airport
invoked the Declaration of Independence and urged passengers to throw
things at a potential hijacker and wrestle him to the floor with a
blanket. On an American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Dallas last
weekend, instead of referring to the seat cushion as a potential
flotation device, the pilot told passengers it could be used as a
shield, presumably against a knife.

"He announced that if there were anyone who was interested in taking
over the flight that of course there were more of us than there were of
them so that wouldn't be a good idea," said Kay Fitch of San Antonio, a
passenger who was returning home after dropping her daughter off at
college. "It was a good way to give us an opportunity to think about
some options that we might want to take."

After the attacks, United altered its suggested script to acknowledge
the tragedy and remind passengers that "our focus is your safety; it
remains our No. 1 priority." The rest is ad-libbed.

"Pilots have taken their own initiative on this," said Captain Dubinsky,
the union leader. "They are doing what they need to do to protect
themselves and their passengers."

The new announcements reflect an about-face in cockpit attitudes as
pilots contemplate a new kind of hijacker who wants to turn an airplane
into a missile rather than just hitch a ride. A pilot in Phoenix who
practices martial arts said he had been going "over in my head what I
would do if someone came in the cockpit." Other pilots are keeping the
crash ax next to them on the floor rather than in its case.

"We're at a point where any hijacker has to be taken out by the crew or
passengers, period," said an American Trans Air pilot at Midway Airport
in Chicago. "I've started thinking to myself, how good am I at
hand-to-hand combat?"

Like many other pilots, Robert Payne who lives near Seattle and flies
MD-80's for Alaska Airlines, moved the jump seat between his chair and
the cockpit door when he returned to work after the attacks.

"Even if you get through the door, it's another barrier you have to
overcome," Captain Payne explained. "It gives me enough time to break
free. And that's enough time for me to disconnect the autopilot, and if
you're not strapped down, you're going for a ride."

Captain Payne said, "the pilots have a different mind-set now." He
added, "You come through the cockpit, you're fair game."

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