Six years after 9/11, the Allied Pilots Association (APA) whose 12,000 pilots fly for American Airlines, want Congress to strengthen the Federal Flight Deck Officer Program (FFDO), a program that permits pilots to carry handguns in the cockpit.
The matter is personal, as well as professional, for the American Airlines cockpit crewmembers. Four of their fellow pilots were killed that Tuesday morning in 2001 when terrorists seized a 767 and a 757. Hijackers flew the former into the World Trade Center, the latter into the Pentagon.
Now, pilots want the last line of defense against hijackers strengthened. Specifically APA, which has been working with other airline flight deck and cabin crew unions, wants improvements in some key areas of the Federal Flight Deck Officer Program: the way duty weapons are carried, international carriage, credential costs, and the way the discipline process works, especially the ability of pilots to appeal.
“We anticipate that legislation will be introduced shortly to address …shortcomings,” says Captain Lloyd Hill, APA President. “We owe it to the traveling public and to the memory of those we lost on 9/11 to strengthen this vital program.”
© Cheapflights Ltd Jerry Chandler
