He said United’s goal is to complete the work within 30 days.Ī United official said the 3-foot bar strengthens the cockpit walls in addition to fortifying the door, although the emergency step will only slow down, not repel, a determined attacker. “We intend to be a leader in this area,” Hopkins said, adding that United has provided the FAA with technical documents outlining the girt bar installation. All the doors are designed for privacy and to break away to allow pilots to escape in an emergency–not to keep hijackers or other terrorists out of the cockpit. said there are more than 40 models of cockpit doors in use on commercial planes worldwide. The specific arrangement will depend on the type of plane. United will install the steel bars on all of its more than 500 planes at either the bottom, mid-section or top of the cockpit door frames, said United spokesman Joseph Hopkins. Still unresolved, however, is a key part of the security package: whether the workers who screen passengers and their carry-on baggage should be federal employees with law-enforcement training or private workers managed by the federal government.īush last week called for better government oversight of the screeners, but administration officials said they were wary of making them federal employees.Ī version of the girt bars that will be used to secure United’s cockpits is already widely used on aircraft doors in passenger cabins to prevent the emergency evacuation slides that are stowed in the doors from deploying unintentionally. 11 hijacking attacks, although it is still not known how the terrorists gained access.Īirlines have focused increased attention on flight crew security, including teaching self-defense techniques to pilots and flight attendants, arming pilots with stun guns and rehearsing defensive maneuvers against a passenger in flight simulators.The administration said it would like to eventually see the installation of an impenetrable partition that walls off the flight crew from the passenger compartment, making it impossible for terrorists to get near the cockpit. Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.) considered the policy a security lapse and told Jackson that the doors should remain locked, even if toilets had to be installed in the cockpits.Ĭoncern about cockpit door security grew out of the Sept. The rule became an issue during testimony Tuesday before the Senate Commerce Committee when Deputy Transportation Secretary Michael Jackson said cockpit doors had to be opened at some point during flights to allow pilots access to the restroom.Ĭommittee Chairman Sen. The FAA's directives also reiterated an earlier order that all cockpit doors remain locked and that only the flight crew have the means to open them. "I'd support cameras and any other tools that would give us an idea of what's going on." "Right now all we have is a peephole in the door that we can look through," said Capt. Pilots interviewed Thursday said the incident shows the need for cameras in the cabin to alert pilots to potential trouble before someone attempts to break down a cockpit door. Herb Hunter, a United pilot and a spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association. ![]() "The new doors would have been better, but the cabin crew and the flight crew worked together to subdue the fellow," said Capt. ![]() The FAA has given the airlines and airplane manufacturers until April 9, 2003, to install on all aircraft armored cockpit doors and bulkheads that can withstand assaults by physical force, gunfire and hand grenades. "I knew something was up because lights were flashing and the flight attendants were running full speed down the aisle toward the cockpit," said Hopman, 25, a sales associate with The Associated Press news service in Washington.Īnother passenger, Lucia Filia, told a Buenos Aires television station that she heard a pilot over the public-address system yelling, "Quickly, quickly, we need help."
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