"Air marshals cover only a few flights"

Air marshals cover only a few flights
Federal air marshals protect less than 5 percent of daily U.S.
flights, and the numbers are declining, despite assurances by the
federal government that most planes would be protected, according to
estimates provided by marshals, pilots and a retired airline
executive.
at http://www.washingtontimes.com/natio...1237-9757r.htm

Air marshals cover only a few flights

If that's the case, are pilots now expected to take a greater part in
protecting the safety of their passengers, crew and themself by carrying guns
or by locking the cockpit?

Zoe

"Zoeliz" wrote in message
...
Air marshals cover only a few flights

If that's the case, are pilots now expected to take a greater part in
protecting the safety of their passengers, crew and themself by carrying
guns
or by locking the cockpit?

I sure hope they don't carry guns. The should just barricade themselves in
the cockpit and fly the plane.

dennis

"Zoeliz" wrote in message
...
Air marshals cover only a few flights

If that's the case, are pilots now expected to take a greater part in
protecting the safety of their passengers, crew and themself by carrying
guns
or by locking the cockpit?

I sure hope they don't carry guns. The should just barricade themselves in
the cockpit and fly the plane.

dennis

"Zoeliz" wrote in message
...
Air marshals cover only a few flights

If that's the case, are pilots now expected to take a greater part in
protecting the safety of their passengers, crew and themself by carrying
guns
or by locking the cockpit?

I sure hope they don't carry guns. The should just barricade themselves in
the cockpit and fly the plane.

dennis

Mike wrote:
Air marshals cover only a few flights
Federal air marshals protect less than 5 percent of daily U.S.
flights, and the numbers are declining, despite assurances by the
federal government that most planes would be protected, according to
estimates provided by marshals, pilots and a retired airline
executive.
at http://www.washingtontimes.com/natio...1237-9757r.htm

True or not, it wouldn't be a problem if everyone believed that air
marshals were on every flight.

"Ender" wrote in message
news:908Uc.19110$X12.15444@edtnps84...
Mike wrote:
Air marshals cover only a few flights
Federal air marshals protect less than 5 percent of daily U.S.
flights, and the numbers are declining, despite assurances by the
federal government that most planes would be protected, according to
estimates provided by marshals, pilots and a retired airline
executive.
at http://www.washingtontimes.com/natio...1237-9757r.htm

True or not, it wouldn't be a problem if everyone believed that air
marshals were on every flight.

I wonder how effective they would actually be in a real terrorist situation.
Would any flight have more than one air Marshall, if not, a two prong attack
would be effective. You only need to have 7-8 bad guys on a plane. You
can preposition weapons in an airport in pieces within a month.

dennis


dennis

ou only need to have 7-8 bad guys on a plane.

So which are the flights not to go on? I'm planning a trip between the UK and
the US in a few weeks and I'm getting frightened of taking the trip.

Zoe

"Zoeliz" wrote in message
...
ou only need to have 7-8 bad guys on a plane.

So which are the flights not to go on? I'm planning a trip between the UK and
the US in a few weeks and I'm getting frightened of taking the trip.

Zoe

Why? Travelling by air, even taking into account the fact that occasionally
really nasty things happen, is 99.99 per cent safe.

JohnT

"JohnT" wrote in message
...

Why? Travelling by air, even taking into account the fact that
occasionally
really nasty things happen, is 99.99 per cent safe.

Very few people would make air trips if flying were that unsafe. There
would be a crash about once a day in the USA.

Guesstimate that each of the top 25 airports in the USA have an average of
300 departures per day (some have much more). That makes vaguely 7500
departures per day, just counting the major airports. JohnT threw out the
number of one problem per ten thousand flights. That would mean roughly one
airliner crash per day in the USA. There have been about 1000 days since
"9/11". IIRC, it has been a number of years since a mainline US airliner
crash.

Even on the disastrous day of 9/11, if you had a scheduled departure from
any US airport chosen at random between 7 and 10 am, the chance of being on
one of the crashed airliners was probably not more than one in a thousand -
and that is the ONLY "bad" day on record.

The historical incidence of crashes is around one in a million takeoffs for
reputable airlines, not one in ten thousand. Is your likelihood of dying
tomorrow from other causes as low as one in a million? People only live
about 25,000 - 30,000 days.