Access Control
& Security Systems

The head of the nation's largest pilots union has blasted a last-minute lobbying maneuver that would exempt cargo airlines from a federal mandate in the Homeland Security bill to arm airline pilots.

"The air cargo industry managed a back-room deal to get the word 'passenger' inserted in the House bill's provision for arming pilots," said Capt. Duane Woerth, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA). The effect of this single word change is that it exempts all cargo carriers from the federal mandate to arm pilots in a bill that was intended to enhance the pilot's ability to protect the airplane."

A similar change is expected in the Senate version of the bill. "The mandate provides a significant increase in security, and that is a very positive development. (But to) create such an obvious loophole in cargo security is mind-boggling," Woerth said. "This is an insult to (those) who worked so diligently to provide all airline pilots with a last line of defense against terrorist hijackers."

Woerth points out that a cargo aircraft is devoid of cabin attendants and air marshals. He says that the entire burden for the security of the aircraft rests on the two or three pilots in the cockpit.

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