The Arming Pilots Against Terrorism Act purports to authorize "flight deck officers" on commercial airlines to carry firearms and to use force, including lethal force, when they judge the security of an aircraft is at risk.
The bill is cosponsored by House Transportation Committee Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska, and House Aviation Subcommittee Chairman John Mica, R-Fla., and has 54 additional cosponsors.
The measure is a direct response to Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta and Undersecretary for Transportation Security John Magaw's decision not to arm pilots under a discretionary provision in the law that created the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
"After a lot of consultation and realizing my experience in law enforcement, I will not authorize firearms in the cockpit," Magaw - who is the former director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, as well as the U.S. Secret Service - told the Senate Commerce Committee May 21.
The Young-Mica bill would require Magaw to establish a program to deputize qualified volunteer pilots of passenger aircraft as federal flight deck officers and to provide training, supervision, and equipment for those officers, according to an analysis by the Congressional Research Service.
But the Airline Pilots' Security Alliance (APSA), a group of pilots from all of the major airlines and pilots' unions, say the bill is flawed.
"It doesn't address the fundamental problem that we have in the existing law," said Capt. Tracy Price, chairman of APSA. "That fundamental problem is, it gives complete control over the structure of the armed pilots program and the decision as to whether pilots will be armed ultimately back to the TSA."
Price says there are four major deficiencies in the legislation, beginning with the lack of a deadline to begin arming pilots and a cap of only 2 percent of pilots being allowed to participate in the program.
"Ninety-eight percent of the flights would be completely unprotected and that would offer no deterrent at all against future terrorist attacks," he explained. "We think the number needs to be changed from 2 percent maximum to 20 percent minimum, and we think he needs to have those 20 percent minimum armed within six months."
Utilizing the existing FBI Cockpit Protection Program, Price believes that number of pilots could easily be trained within a six-month period.
APSA also opposes a provision in the Young-Mica bill that would restrict participation in the program to pilots with prior military or law enforcement experience. That would eliminate approximately 40 percent of the current pilot force, he said, again reducing the deterrent effect.
Not to mention, those pilots could also potentially skew the results of the initial evaluation of the program's safety and effectiveness.
The final flaw APSA finds with the bill again involves Magaw.
"At the end of the program, we need to have the president decide, not a mid-level bureaucrat that is trying to build an empire. That's what John Magaw is over at TSA," Price argued. "He's trying to build an empire of Federal Air Marshals and having armed pilots reduces the demand for the growth of his empire."
Price says he spoke with staff members handling the bill in Mica's office Monday morning.
"They're not saying 'no.' They're not saying they are opposed," he said. "They seem to want to do this. They don't disagree with us at all."
Opposition to the bill, according to Price, is limited.
"There's really only three groups: The TSA, the airlines, and terrorists," he claimed. "The TSA should rethink their position, as should the airlines, when they find themselves on the same sheet of music as the terrorists who killed 3,000 Americans on September 11th."
In an attempt to address the concerns of the airlines, both House and Senate versions of the proposal include liability waivers, exempting the airlines and armed pilots from lawsuits in state and federal courts under almost all circumstances.
Only pilots could be held liable, and only if they show "gross negligence" or "willful disregard" for the safety of passengers or fellow crewmembers.
The bill will be considered by the full House as early as Wednesday. All of the suggestions Price made for changes to the bill could be offered as floor amendments at that time.
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