US Air pilot and Gun

Well, I haven't flown any US Airlines since the FFDO program began. Finally, one of these nitwits discharges his gun in a plane. And it seems this "well-trained" clown was mishandling his gun. It's one thing to fuck around with a gun on the ground, but another to do it in a pressurised cabin of an airliner.

As one person pointed out, one wrong shot with a .40 and the whole plane comes down. A bullet through the wind screen or the control panel of a jet traveling at over 500 miles per hour means an instantly killed crew and, a few minutes later, several hundred dead passengers. Well, the experts say a gunshot wouldn't be likely to cause the kind of damage that would lead immediately to a crash.

O.K., maybe not immediately, but maybe it might take a little while longer.

Anyway, a hijacker of the 9/11 ilk isn't going to be put off by some middle-aged jet jockey with a gun. In fact, I am pretty sure al-queda would train them to take out at least one of these guys. FYI, al-queda doesn't just rush into action.

Furthermore, al-queda is probably done with hijacking jet airliners. They can take them out of the sky with a Man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS), such as a SA-18 Grouse or stinger, if they want to drop one as well. It's been done before, and I can see al-queda as being more likely to do that than hijack again. Rumours are that TWA flight 800 was taken out by a MANPAD. MANPADS are far more of a threat than hijacking these days.

Imagine what would happen if al-queda took out a few US airliners during a period of time. Especially if that happened in US airspace!

Are people really that stupid as to think a handgun will stop someone with a guided missile?

I guess this is just another way of feeling like you're something when the US rolled over and played dead after 9/11. Personally, it doesn't make me feel safe having any loaded weapons in the cockpit. Especially when this country is doing zip to really address the terrorism issue.