Pilot’s Gun Fires On US Airways Flight
DENVER (AP) - A gun belonging to the pilot of a US Airways plane went off as the aircraft was on approach to land in North Carolina over the weekend, the first time a weapon issued under a federal program to arm pilots was fired, authorities said Monday.
The “accidental discharge” Saturday aboard Flight 1536 from Denver to Charlotte did not endanger the aircraft or the 124 passengers, two pilots and three flight attendants aboard, said Greg Alter of the Federal Air Marshal Service.
“We know that there was never any danger to the aircraft or to the occupants on board,” Alter said.
It is the first time a pilot’s weapon has been fired on a plane under a program created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to allow pilots and others to use a firearm to defend against any act of air piracy or criminal violence, he said.
The Transportation Security Administration is investigating how the gun discharged and is being assisted by the Air Marshal Service, Alter said.
The service declined to release additional details.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Mike Fergus said his agency is also investigating to make sure that the plane is safe. The Airbus A319 has been removed from service, the airline said.
The TSA initially opposed the Flight Deck Officer program to arm and train cockpit personnel. Agency officials worried that introducing a weapon to commercial flights was dangerous and that other security improvements made it unnecessary. Congress and pilots backed the program.
“The TSA has never been real supportive of this program,” said Mike Boyd, who runs the Colorado-based aviation consulting firm The Boyd Group. “It’s something I think Congress kind of put on them.”
Pilots must volunteer, take a psychological test and complete a weeklong firearms training program run by the government to keep a gun in the cockpit.
Boyd said he supports the program to arm pilots, saying, “if somebody who has the ability to fly a 747 across the Pacific wants a gun, you give it to them.” But he said Saturday’s incident could have been much worse.
“If that bullet had compromised the shell of the airplane, i.e., gone through a window, the airplane could have gone down,” he said.
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Bloody hell!
Just what we need….
March 24th, 2008 at 4:56 pmMy Dad called them “incompetent discharges”, said there was no room for accidental anything on his range.
The “pilot” has control of an AIRPLANE … You think if he were “nuts” and wanted to kill everybody he’d
1) NEED to TAKE OVER the stinkin’ plane with a gun?
2) NEED a gun to threaten to kill everybody aboard?
3) NEED said gun to do so?
Any reports on how many of the crew and passengers needed fresh undies by the time they landed?
March 24th, 2008 at 5:16 pmI’ll bet you he was doing something he shouldn’t have been doing. There are no “accidental” discharges, improper maintenance and handling lead to negligent discharges. Any number of things can lead to an ND but they all start with user error.
March 24th, 2008 at 5:41 pmim just going to exercise my lazy opinion on this one and say, what a dumbass!
March 24th, 2008 at 5:52 pmOf what I’ve heard they were on final approach. Why HK? Why Chambered before needed? A Glock Un-chambered is all you need in a cockpit, you can rack it and double tap it in a second if someone is kicking in a door. A plane is not going to go down because a window is blown out, they are pressurized to about 5 lb per square inch not a big deal, plus they will go to auto pilot if something goes to far off the flight plan, the only way it could go down is if the pilot emptied his 45 into the controls, and he does not need a gun to damage that, in the cockpit is a full fire AX if he wants to get wild he can with the AX… talk about damage, I can’t remember the last time a pilot AXed a plane to bits.
I’m thinking he was following regulations a “”little early”" buy unloading the gun before disembarking the plane… It should ether be loaded from the time he leaves his house to the time he gets back to his house. or just Un-chambered.
that’s my story and I sticking to it.
March 24th, 2008 at 8:57 pmim more scared of pilots being armed than terrorists! why the fuck was the weapon in condition 1?(meaning loaded and ready round in the chamber).theres no such thing as “accidental discharge” that means his weapon was loaded cocked and ready and his finger was on the trigger for some fucking reason. the guy was just retarded he was fuckin with the gun and it went off simple as that, they call it accidental discharge ahahah. even if there was a terrorist attack and some muj had a hostage with knife to her throat threatening to cut her head off unless they open the door, watch the pilot hit everyone other than the bad guy… why arm pilots? there not trained there never gonna be trained
March 25th, 2008 at 12:38 amUsing nothing but double action revolvers would help.
March 25th, 2008 at 4:50 am“why arm pilots? there not trained there never gonna be trained”
Wow wjin, everything you said was just Super Stupid…
Most of these pilots have a military background, and if we can trust them with a multi-million dollar aircraft and hundreds of lives, we can trust them with one firearm.
Also, a bullet going through a 747 window is not as likely to cause a crash as people think, and decompression from one bullet hole isn’t like they portray it in the movies. Airliners flying at 30 thousand feet just aren’t pressurized at a high enough level to cause the side of the plane to blow off because of a small hole or series of small holes even.
March 25th, 2008 at 7:26 amAlthough I don’t mind that pilots are being allowed to carry guns, it still really pisses me off that I’m unable to obtain a concealed weapons permit while someone with limited to no shooting experience can be fully armed in public. Hell I’d be happier if I could just carry a knife in my pocket on an airplane, let alone my gun.
March 25th, 2008 at 7:37 amYeah there’s no “accidental discharge”. Dumbass pilot. Probably some hill-jack.
I’m all for pilots arming, but that being said they 1) need to be specifically trained in firearms, and 2) they should have an effective deterrent weapon on the plane. I personally don’t think a single-fire (like a 9mm) is effective, plus it’s a penetrating round–which arguably isn’t good on an aluminum-skinned aircraft, packed full of people.
“The plane was never in danger”. Yeah right. Where’d that round go? Did it just evaporate? There’s a lot of avionics in that cockpit. You’d better believe it went somewhere.
March 25th, 2008 at 10:09 am
March 25th, 2008 at 12:50 pm