Posted on: Friday, July 12, 2002

Arming pilots mostly a symbolic gesture

It's easy to see how the prospect of armed pilots in the cockpits of every U.S. airliner might work as a deterrent against a future hijacking.

It certainly won't be a foolproof solution to the terrifying lesson of Sept. 11.

Congress is rushing forward with a bill that would arm cockpit crews. But this idea is, in effect, a defense against the specific techniques that emerged in those hijackings. Still, if arming pilots increases passenger confidence and deters even a single hijacking, it may be worth the effort.

But we should go into this with eyes open: Once weapons are in the cockpit, they will be used. Training can't completely eliminate the possibility of an accidental shooting or misuse of a weapon.

But the larger issue is concern that this may lull people into thinking we have solved our airline security problems. This idea must not slow down far more fruitful and wide-ranging efforts to improve safety. This ranges from better screening at airports through increased security training.

More attention also should be focused on what might broadly be called intelligence gathering such as "marrying" intelligence information with airline reservation records.

Emotionally, we all can wish that those knife-carrying hijackers had been greeted with well-armed and well-trained cockpit crew. But we all know that ensuring our national airline security will take much, much more than putting the pistol on the hips of our pilots.