Cockpit assault

Capt. Bob Cox is special projects officer for the national security committee of the Air Line Pilots Association, an employee labor union representing 55,000 pilots at 51 U.S. and Canadian carriers (including United, Delta, TWA, Northwest, U.S. Airways and Alaska). Cox believes that other airlines should follow the example set by Indian carriers. "The ALPA strongly endorses an increase in the use of armed federal air marshals on random domestic flights to deter or prevent violent attacks on crew members," he says. "These are highly trained individuals with well-refined abilities to protect the cockpit and will do so at all costs."

Not all pilots agree with such a drastic approach. Ed Horton, an international airline captain with 25 years' experience in matters of flight security and disruptive passengers, doesn't want the airplane cabin to turn into a battle zone. "The last thing you want is shots being fired inside an aircraft." Horton believes the best way to stop potentially violent passengers is with well-trained eyes rather than weaponry. "All airlines need to do a better job at training crew members to recognize potentially disruptive passengers," he says. "We need to learn more effective ways to approach them, how to diffuse the problem and how to deal with them effectively should violence erupt."

With the possible exception of Indian Airlines and a few others, most airline companies do not properly train their flight attendants on how to handle violent passengers. Cabin crews are equipped with written, step-by-step procedures for dealing with almost every conceivable problem on a flight: seat malfunctions, broken ovens, cabin depressurization, medical emergencies, emergency evacuations and inoperative lavatories. They even receive detailed information on what steps to take should a woman give birth in flight. But there are no comprehensive procedures for suppressing a ballistic customer, no blueprint for crews to follow should they come face to face with the passenger from hell.

Left to their own devices, crew members are nevertheless quick to improvise. When Trammel attempted to break into the cockpit of the U.S. Airways jet, a quick-thinking flight attendant used a service cart to block access to the door. That stopped him long enough for passengers to help wrestle him to the ground. Flight attendant Renee Sheffer suffered serious injuries during the melee. Her husband, Mike, promptly created the Skyrage Foundation, a watchdog organization aimed at eradicating assaults against flight crews. With Sheffer at the helm, the foundation's Web site tracks every reported instance of in-flight violence and serves as a forum for open dialogue on the subject. Sheffer believes that "anyone who attempts to, or actually enters, the cockpit and endangers the safe operation of the aircraft should have the maximum penalty imposed if convicted. (If President Clinton signs the aviation bill that the House and Senate just passed, that would mean a $25,000 fine)."

But he'd like to see the penalties become even more severe. "We should also adjust the federal sentencing guidelines to reflect the enormously serious nature of these acts, by increasing the level of offense to something similar to kidnapping or attempted murder. That way, federal judges would be able to impose serious prison terms."

In 1994, the Federal Aviation Administration reported 121 incidents of in-flight passenger misconduct. These incidents run the gamut, from severely rude and obnoxious behavior -- for example, a passenger verbally threatening to punch a crew member -- to outright physical assault. By 1998 the figure had reached 283.

But because the FAA records only those incidents that airlines choose to disclose, the total number of assaults is probably much higher. United Airlines, for example, recorded 635 incidents of disruptive behavior in 1998. Of these, 61 were physical assaults. If one airline claims to have had 635 disruptive incidents in one year (9.6 percent of which were assaults), and the FAA reports a grand total of only 283 occurrences on 84 U.S. airlines during the same period, it's safe to say that somebody is not telling the whole story.

Perhaps in the not-too-distant future, a pleasant smile and friendly demeanor will no longer be listed in the job description for those seeking employment as a flight attendant. Instead, airlines may seek physically imposing, nightclub bouncer types who can deliver a knee to the groin or a blow to the solar plexus as effortlessly as an after-dinner cordial.

Now that older jets with three-pilot cockpits are gradually giving way to economically efficient models built with a cockpit for two, the modern-day flight crew is reduced by 33 percent. With only two pilots aboard instead of three on many flights, their safety and well-being have become more important than ever. As a result, pilots are becoming more and more reluctant to put themselves in harm's way. "Sending a pilot into the passenger cabin to help resolve a dispute seriously diminishes the safety of the flight," says Northwest Airlines Capt. Stephen Luckey, chairman of the ALPA's national security committee. "This is particularly so in the event of an altercation which could result in an incapacitated pilot."

Airline pilots must remain untouched and unencumbered behind the cockpit door. Unsound doors need to be fortified. Cabin crews need to be better trained. The federal air marshal program may need to be expanded or restructured to accommodate this new wave of nonterrorist terrorism. Until these aspects of in-flight security are properly addressed, who's going to stop a fearless, able-bodied maniac from breaking into the cockpit and assaulting the two most important individuals on an aircraft? Fearless, able-bodied passengers and cabin crew have done so in the past, but our luck is bound to run out one of these days.

• View blog reactions