Vliegen wordt veiliger

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Het luchtruim wordt nu nog veiliger!!!
Naar verwachting krijgen tot 30.000 (van de 100.000) Amerikaanse piloten een .40 -kaliber semi-automatisch pistool. Een .40-kaliber kogel kan
dodelijk zijn voor de beschoten persoon, maar heeft daarna kennelijk niet genoeg energie om het lichaam te verlaten en nogmaals iemand te
verwonden.
Deelnemers hoeven overigens hun werkgever pas na het slagen voor de 5-daagse cursus te informeren ter bescherming van hun eigen privacy.

Het wachten is nu op het eerste vliegtuig dat naar beneden komt door een kogel van de eigen piloot :(.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/18/international/worldspecial/18PILO.html
Airline Pilots Set to Carry Firearms
By PHILIP SHENON

LYNCO, Ga., April 17 — After a graduation ceremony this weekend, a group of pilots from several of the nation's largest airlines will return
home with a special gift from the federal government: a .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun that, beginning next week, they can carry into the
cockpits of their planes.

The 46 pilots, most of them gray-haired veterans of the airline industry who volunteered to travel to southern Georgia this week for the first
federal training class for armed pilots, say they cannot wait to get back into the sky — this time, armed to protect their passengers from the
threat of terrorist hijackers.

[knip]

Under the program approved by Congress as a legacy of Sept. 11, the pilots are not required to tell their employers about their participation in
the training until after they have graduated. That reflects an effort to protect the pilots' privacy should they fail to complete the program, which
includes a criminal background check and a psychological examination.

The Transportation Security Administration said that 48 pilots had begun the class this week and that two had left for reasons that instructors
would not explain to reporters who were invited to witness the training here today.

The pilots who complete the course, which includes lectures with names like "The Psychology of Survival," will each take home the .40-caliber
pistol, a supply of ammunition, a holster and a metal lockbox. Under the conditions of the program, pilots will be required to carry the weapon
into the plane in the lockbox covered in a nondescript cloth bag, and to take the gun out of the lockbox only after they are in the cockpit.

If they travel home as a passenger instead of in the cockpit, the guns would be carried inside the lockboxes in special areas of the cargo hold.

Some pilots in the program acknowledged knowing colleagues who, for a variety of physical and emotional reasons, should not carry guns onto a
plane, even though they were more than competent to fly safely.

"I think there are a lot of cops who shouldn't be carrying a gun," said Stephen Luckey, a former 747 pilot for Northwest Airlines who is now a
safety specialist with the Air Line Pilots Association and joined in the training here this week. "But for most pilots, this is long overdue."

Mr. Luckey pointed out that this is not the first time commercial pilots have carried guns into cockpits. Beginning in the 1970's, he was among
about 10 pilots who were allowed to carry firearms in planes.

In the 1950's, airline pilots on flights carrying United States mail were allowed to carry guns. The captain of an American Airlines DC-6 shot and
fatally wounded a 15-year-old who tried to hijack his plane in Cleveland in July 1954.

Groet,

Cees Binkhorst - cees at binkhorst.xs4all.nl

Een paar recente uitspraken:
'Als de VN relevant willen zijn, moeten ze precies doen wat ik zeg.'
'Ik weet dat ik tegen de wensen van de Security Council en de tekst
van het VN-verdrag in ga, maar ik doe het wel om een VN-resolutie
uit te voeren.'
Een oude uitspraak van Thomas Paine uit 1795 "Every man must
finally  see the necessity of  protecting the rights of others as the
most effectual security for his own"

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