Air Marshalls magic or myth

I get your drift, but my preference is for a pretty good chance over no chance. I still favor armed pilots, by the way, in at least a somewhat secure cockpit.

armed pilots, secure doors like in el AL planes, besides a skycop.

Ooh, that I like....now let's persuade the pilots!

I believe that most pilots are for the arming thing. There was a bill introduced to provide training and arms to some pilots as a "pilot' program . i dont know where it went. As far as the safe doors, that was supposed to be in place by this year. I have no idea why stuff takes so long. Im assuming that there is some airline lobby thats arguing against safe doors because "research has shown" some obscure point.

How's a skycop gonna protect you from a surface-to-air missile?




for anyone who didn't get this bit:
as well as hundreds of US made MANPADS shipped to foreign nations and then left untracked

MANPADS? What an utterly dorky name. Am I the only one who thinks of codpieces?

Meanwhile, putting aside the dorkiness for a minute, yoiks.

There's obviously a great difference between pilots in the USA and in Europe (as there is one re weapons in 'normal' population as well):

Europe scowls at plans for marshals

Hmmm - you'd wanna have pretty well-trained pilots, no? Shooting in a pressurized aircraft?


The weapons stuff? Talk about hoist on our own petard...

This is like Darwin being bombed by Japanese planes made of the iron our Prime Minister insisted on selling to them pre-war against strenuous union opposition...

As for missiles hitting civil flights - I guess if your number is up 'tain't no use worrying about it...

Air Marshall's are specifically trained NOT to allow the situation Laptoploon presented happen. It isn't likely one would just stand up and ID themselves as an Air Marshall until they had fully assesed the situation and had some assistance. Quite often there is more than one Air Marshall on any given flight too.

i'd agree with mr. still that simple surface-to-air missile thingies are probably he greatest threat to airplanes - they manage even to shoot down military aircraft with those things. mrs. h thinks one of the most dangerous weapons are probably the bottles of liquor sold in the duty-free stores; nobody seems to question them(you can even buy them on the plane; they make a pretty good weapon i'd think). as far as using el-al's security measures are concerned, i believe most north-americans would be unwilling to put up with the intense questioning, searches etc. ... there was an interesting article in a travel magazine recently re. el-al's security. the travel writer had asked an israely ex-security agent how he could make himself just "somewhat" suspicious without being turned away. the scenario went somewhat like this : check-in three hours before departure, intense questioning by two security officers,. luggage search, more questioning by another security officer and finally approval for boarding. turned out his "reserved" seat was not available; he found himself seated next to a very friendly, inquisitive and brawny fellow with a bulging pocket. he said he didn't dare making a false move - postponed visit to the washroom until arrival in tel aviv ! we've found that security checks in germany and austria that are usually carried out by the border-police are much more thorough than in north-america, but while thorough we have never found the officers to be rude or brusk - always quite polite. when we were in frankfurt last fall, an el- al airplane was coming in shortly after our plane landed and was escorted by several armoured vehicles and a couple of jeeps carrying border-police with their weapons at the ready to a location at the far end of the airport. are we ready for that kind of security in north-america ? just think of the time it would take to board and deplane. i read in the BUSINESS WEEKLY that many corporations now hire private planes for their executives to reduce the hassles of check-in. hbg