Swanspirit
October 2nd, 2001, 12:07 AM
if this has been posted here yet......
Experts urge airline passengers to fight
- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Sharon Cohen
Sept. 21, 2001 |
Kathy Rockel was amazed when her United Airlines flight
last weekend began with an extraordinary message from
the pilot: He informed passengers how to rise up and
fend off hijackers.
"If anybody stands up and is trying to take over the
plane, stand up together, take whatever you have and
throw it at their heads," she quoted the pilot as saying.
"You have to aim for their faces so they have to defend
themselves."
The pilot also said passengers could
fight hijackers by throwing blankets over
their heads, wrestling them to the
ground and holding them until he landed,
Rockel said. And referring to the "we the
people" preamble to the Constitution,
she recalled, he said, "We will not be
defeated."
"Everybody on the plane was applauding," said Rockel, a
medical transcriptionist traveling from Denver to
Washington, D.C., Sept. 15 on United's Flight 564.
"People had tears coming down their faces. It was as if
we had a choice here, that if something were to happen
we're not completely powerless."
Peter Hannaford, a public relations consultant on the
plane, wrote about the incident in a column published in
The Washington Times. He described how the pilot urged
passengers to use books, glasses, shoes and other
instruments to attack hijackers. His message quickly
spread via the Internet.
United Airlines declined comment on the incident.
Spokeswoman Liz Meagher said the airline had not
changed its policy on what flight crews should say,
adding that what this pilot did "is probably due to
duress."
The pilot's message, while unorthodox, is part of a
growing feeling among some aviation safety experts in
the wake of the terrorist attacks that travelers must be
more aggressive in resisting hijackers.
Some passengers on United Flight 93, one of four planes
commandeered Sept. 11, apparently rushed the hijackers
and are believed to have helped prevent the aircraft
from reaching Washington, D.C. The plane nose-dived in
a Pennsylvania field -- the only one not to hit a target.
The take-charge approach is a shift in decades-long
attitudes by both pilots and passengers that cooperation
is the best approach for dealing with hijackers.
But that belief "was based on the fundamental premise
that the hijackers are rational human beings and want to
live," said Raleigh Truitt, a pilot who heads his own
aviation consulting firm in New Jersey.
"When you're on an airplane and it's controlled by people
who are ... bent on destroying themselves and others,"
he said, "the reaction has to be different."
John Mazor, a spokesman for the Air Line Pilots
Association, said pilots are now considering the
possibility of heading a public awareness campaign to
emphasize that "safety is everybody's responsibility."
"We're using the term `aggressively defend the
airplane,"' Mazor said.
"The danger is we don't want passengers to suddenly be
forming posses every time somebody speaks with a
foreign accent," he added. "There has to be some way
of channeling this and making sure it's not unleashed
except in cases of dire emergency."
The union is leading a campaign to improve airline safety
and one of the first priorities will be to get a stronger
cockpit door, Mazor said. He also said pilots are
rethinking their opposition to guns in the cockpit.
"We can't limit ourselves to situations that used to
work," he said.
This discussion of new air safety techniques come as
some pilots and flight crews returning to the skies are
taking extra steps to reassure rattled travelers.
Beth Rosen, a suburban Chicago passenger who flew
from Paris to Cincinnati last weekend, said the Delta pilot
kept his passengers apprised of every step he was
taking -- even notifying them when he opened the
cockpit door.
"A couple of times he would say, 'Everything's going
great. We're flying fine.' You felt like they were your
buddies in the cockpit," she said.
On the unusual trip to Washington last week, Rockel
said, a flight attendant urged passengers to chat with
one another and show each other family photos.
Hannaford said he thought the message from the pilot --
who thanked the passengers for being brave -- was
terrific.
"There was a palpable sense of relief," he said. "My wife
and I said, 'What an amazing thing to say.' "
Hannaford said he wrote a letter to United's chairman,
praising the pilot.
"What he said was short but sweet," he said. "This man
ought to get a medal."
Love and Light
Swannie
Experts urge airline passengers to fight
- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Sharon Cohen
Sept. 21, 2001 |
Kathy Rockel was amazed when her United Airlines flight
last weekend began with an extraordinary message from
the pilot: He informed passengers how to rise up and
fend off hijackers.
"If anybody stands up and is trying to take over the
plane, stand up together, take whatever you have and
throw it at their heads," she quoted the pilot as saying.
"You have to aim for their faces so they have to defend
themselves."
The pilot also said passengers could
fight hijackers by throwing blankets over
their heads, wrestling them to the
ground and holding them until he landed,
Rockel said. And referring to the "we the
people" preamble to the Constitution,
she recalled, he said, "We will not be
defeated."
"Everybody on the plane was applauding," said Rockel, a
medical transcriptionist traveling from Denver to
Washington, D.C., Sept. 15 on United's Flight 564.
"People had tears coming down their faces. It was as if
we had a choice here, that if something were to happen
we're not completely powerless."
Peter Hannaford, a public relations consultant on the
plane, wrote about the incident in a column published in
The Washington Times. He described how the pilot urged
passengers to use books, glasses, shoes and other
instruments to attack hijackers. His message quickly
spread via the Internet.
United Airlines declined comment on the incident.
Spokeswoman Liz Meagher said the airline had not
changed its policy on what flight crews should say,
adding that what this pilot did "is probably due to
duress."
The pilot's message, while unorthodox, is part of a
growing feeling among some aviation safety experts in
the wake of the terrorist attacks that travelers must be
more aggressive in resisting hijackers.
Some passengers on United Flight 93, one of four planes
commandeered Sept. 11, apparently rushed the hijackers
and are believed to have helped prevent the aircraft
from reaching Washington, D.C. The plane nose-dived in
a Pennsylvania field -- the only one not to hit a target.
The take-charge approach is a shift in decades-long
attitudes by both pilots and passengers that cooperation
is the best approach for dealing with hijackers.
But that belief "was based on the fundamental premise
that the hijackers are rational human beings and want to
live," said Raleigh Truitt, a pilot who heads his own
aviation consulting firm in New Jersey.
"When you're on an airplane and it's controlled by people
who are ... bent on destroying themselves and others,"
he said, "the reaction has to be different."
John Mazor, a spokesman for the Air Line Pilots
Association, said pilots are now considering the
possibility of heading a public awareness campaign to
emphasize that "safety is everybody's responsibility."
"We're using the term `aggressively defend the
airplane,"' Mazor said.
"The danger is we don't want passengers to suddenly be
forming posses every time somebody speaks with a
foreign accent," he added. "There has to be some way
of channeling this and making sure it's not unleashed
except in cases of dire emergency."
The union is leading a campaign to improve airline safety
and one of the first priorities will be to get a stronger
cockpit door, Mazor said. He also said pilots are
rethinking their opposition to guns in the cockpit.
"We can't limit ourselves to situations that used to
work," he said.
This discussion of new air safety techniques come as
some pilots and flight crews returning to the skies are
taking extra steps to reassure rattled travelers.
Beth Rosen, a suburban Chicago passenger who flew
from Paris to Cincinnati last weekend, said the Delta pilot
kept his passengers apprised of every step he was
taking -- even notifying them when he opened the
cockpit door.
"A couple of times he would say, 'Everything's going
great. We're flying fine.' You felt like they were your
buddies in the cockpit," she said.
On the unusual trip to Washington last week, Rockel
said, a flight attendant urged passengers to chat with
one another and show each other family photos.
Hannaford said he thought the message from the pilot --
who thanked the passengers for being brave -- was
terrific.
"There was a palpable sense of relief," he said. "My wife
and I said, 'What an amazing thing to say.' "
Hannaford said he wrote a letter to United's chairman,
praising the pilot.
"What he said was short but sweet," he said. "This man
ought to get a medal."
Love and Light
Swannie