Bender

Now this is just me speaking...

I am a commercial pilot and I spent 20 years in the military as well, 15 of those years was as a UH-60 pilot. I also flew armed. As a pilot I would be more concerned about getting the aircraft on the ground than trying to fight some one off. I would rather have my crew (flight attendant, air marshall) fight off the attacker while I am putting the aircraft on the ground. As we used to say in the Army when in an emergency "Fly the Aircraft."

Thats just me and I am just a helicopter pilot... we are different than those civilian commercial airline pilots so we think differently.

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Ahhh, what an awful dream. Ones and zeros everywhere... and I thought I saw a two.

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NRA - Life Member

MaxLoad

That's what scares the hell out of most of us. If the pilot goes down, who flies the plane?
The attendants need access to firearms too!
Certainly, more Air Marshals!

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If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck.

cadave

Well I am a commercial pilot as well, after being a Navy Pilot, so from that perspective, I believe that you do think differently. From experience, we now know that it's difficult to put the aircraft on the ground (in one piece) after your throat has been cut. Priority number one is to neutralize the threat. Then you have the option to concentrate fully on flying the aircraft. Not to sound too abrasive, but one of my Navy colleagues was on the first aircraft into the World Trade Center. Getting the aircraft on the ground and then fighting off the attacker didn't work too well for him.

Dihappy

Thanks for the post Cadave

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"...trying to get a long gun into play while someone is all over you like a monkey eating a cupcake is not very conducive to good survival techniques." ~Bark'n

Bender

With all due respect… that is why I believe that the rest of the flight crew should be armed as well. Why just the pilot? My humble opinion is if the attacker has made it to the flight deck and is banging on the door, he has made it too far. He should have been stopped long before then.

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Ahhh, what an awful dream. Ones and zeros everywhere... and I thought I saw a two.

HOG - Life Member
NRA - Life Member

Janq

Very much agreed in regard to his statement of "new normal".

A funny interesting aspect to this subject is that some folks, even here at DC.com, think that fighting from enclosed vehicle spaces is not possible be it the front or rear seat of ones automobile or that of a aircrafts cockpit.
Clearly it is possible...if keyword you think on it and train toward as much.
I'm all for pilots being supported in this effort as per todays new normal.

One other thing, toward getting to the ground or fighting first...my position is fight first steer second.
One cannot assume that getting to the ground is in the hijackers operations outline as a desire or allowance. Same applies to an insurrection interaction on a bus, train, or boat be it commercial or private.
Also we as passengers would be forced to make a decision; Stand up, do something, and risk very serious highly possible injury or even death...or stay seated, do nothing, and risk very serious highly possible injury or even death.
A tough call it would be but in a post 9/11 world such as we live in I figure for myself what exactly do I have to lose...?

Seeing this video reminds me that as it's nice out today, maybe I might knock off work early and go train outside in my backyard with a BB pistol toward point shooting against multiple attackers...with my glasses removed to simulate less than optimal defense/attack conditions.

- Janq

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"Killers who are not deterred by laws against murder are not going to be deterred by laws against guns. " - Robert A. Levy
Monday, March 12, 2007 -- Op Ed -- The Washington Post

JonInNY

The autopilots on commercial liners are quite capable of flying the plane without intervention. I have one in my Cessna, and once programmed, it requires no input at all from me (until I need to land the plane).

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Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
(Who will guard the guards?)