FAA Plans to Disarm Flight Crews
By Jeff Johnson
CNSNews.com Congressional Bureau Chief
September 20, 2001
(Editor's note: Adds quotations from pilots)
(CNSNews.com) - A new Federal Aviation Regulation would take away the right of pilots, co-pilots, and navigators to carry firearms and other weapons for self-defense.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Paul Takemoto acknowledged Thursday that flight crews have been authorized to carry firearms for the past 20 years.
"That will change on November 14," he said. "The new rule will not include authorization (to carry firearms) and crew members will no longer be allowed to carry arms."
Federal Aviation Regulation 108.11 currently allows armed individuals on aircraft, "if the person having the weapon is authorized to have the weapon by the (airline) and the Administrator (of the FAA) and has successfully completed a course of training in the use of firearms acceptable to the Administrator."
That federal aviation regulation also establishes the conditions under which law enforcement officers and other government officials may be armed on board aircraft. Takemoto indicated ther would be no changes to those regulations.
Takemoto was not aware of whether or not the FAA had ever approved a firearms training course for flight crews, or whether such a request had ever been made. He indicated that the agency was too busy to research the issue in light of the on-going investigation into the hijacking of four passenger jets by terrorists armed with plastic knives and box cutters on September 11.
In response to those attacks, the Front Sight Firearms Training Institute in Las Vegas, Nevada, offered weapons training specifically designed for cockpit crews free to any pilot, co-pilot, or navigator, if their employer requests the training. Dr. Ignatius Piazza, founder of Front Sight, was outraged by the FAA's decision.
"The FAA, in changing the regulation, and preventing the airlines from arming and training their pilots effectively places the blood on their hands for every (future) terrorist act involving the take-over of a cockpit of an airplane," he said.
Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America, agreed.
"This is simply going to insure, and reassure the terrorists, that they will be the only ones armed. They will break the law, because they're criminals, and they'll be able to repeat exactly what was done," Pratt said.
"These people haven't learned a thing," he continued, "and they need to be fired, because anybody who thinks self defense is a bad idea doesn't belong in public service."