Blame Shifts to TSA in Pilot’s Gun Mishap

from the APSA at http://secure-skies.org/ (pro-gun pilots association)

Airline pilots and federal flight deck officers (FFDO) say ill-conceived TSA weapons handling
rules were to blame for the accidental discharge of a pilot’s firearm in the cockpit of a US
Airways jet last weekend.

Federal officers familiar with the investigation say they repeatedly warned TSA officials that an
unprecedented TSA requirement that pilots take off and lock up their guns before leaving the
cockpit is manifestly unsafe and would result in accidents.

“The pilot was trying to lock his gun and remove the holster in an airplane going 300 miles per
hour in preparation for landing and the padlock depressed the trigger,” said a federal flight
deck officer who declined to be identified. “TSA knew this could happen but didn’t get rid of
the requirement.”

A special working group within the Federal Air Marshal Service recommended TSA adopt
standard federal weapons carriage rules for flight officers last year to prevent accidents. But,
TSA officials declined to implement the group’s recommendation.

“Every other federal law enforcement officer in the air and on the ground carries his gun
concealed on his person where he can control it. And he never touches it except in an
emergency, because the less it is handled, the better,” said David Mackett, president of the
Airline Pilots Security Alliance. “TSA’s got these pilots taking off and putting on their guns 10
times a day. It’s a recipe for disaster and that’s why no other agency does it.”

Mackett says TSA’s unilateral policy that pilots’ guns be carried ‘off-body’, has resulted in
numerous guns being lost or stolen, and now in an accident. “We have to have the FFDO
program since screeners miss so many weapons at checkpoints and air marshals will never
protect more than 1 or 2% of flights. But, TSA can’t continuously ignore standard procedures
proven over thousands of other law enforcement officers and then blame the pilot when it
goes wrong.”

“We said, ‘Just use the same procedures you use for your own air marshals,’” said one federal
flight officer. “How hard is that to understand? It’s long past time Congress took a hard look
at the way this program is being run.”