Whenever a task needs to be done there is always an element of risk attached to it.
It is possible that an event will take place which is undesirable and which can cause problems or damage to a system. Risk management deals with the reduction of occurrence or minimization of consequences of such an event. In aviation there is always a possibility of an untoward incident taking place which would pose a threat to the safety of an airplane or its passengers and crew or both. Here we need to make sure that such an incident does not take place, and if it does then how to deal with it.The whole business of aviation is dependant on the airline security as people would always decide their plans accordingly.
Hence risk management in this case is much more important. In the present times there are a lot of modern tools being implemented in order to improve aviation security as a whole. Tools like metal detectors, X-ray machines, etc. are already in place.
But there have been many incidents in the past where people have managed to board the planes with weapons and arms causing casualties of both passengers as well as others.This has happened in spite of these tools being present. Hence there needs to be an extra security cover to make the planes safer to travel in. In order to do that people have been talking about “giving arms to pilots” to fight any criminals or terrorists that manage to sneak in. This paper will study the advantages and disadvantages of arming the pilots and non air marshal law enforcement officers in a commercial aircraft in order to minimize the risks. Arming the pilots: Should they be?In the past we have seen many incidents when people have hijacked planes by bringing in arms inside even when they had been screened before boarding.
This shows that there may be some loopholes identified by the terrorists and there can be such loopholes created in future as well. There is no complete guarantee that such events will not take place again. The bigger threat posed on such occasions is that the hijackers are the only ones carrying arms due to which they can easily take control of the aircraft.If pilots are trained and given arms, they can serve as the last line of defense. There have been attempts to increase the strength of cockpit doors in order to keep attackers out of the cockpit but there are limitations to it and they can be broken down. If the pilots inside are equipped with guns they can tackle them, even shoot them if required, and save the lives of hundreds of passengers.
Some people say that the disadvantage with arming the pilots is that the guns can be snatched by the attackers and used to hijack the plane.But the pilots are sealed behind the cockpit doors which means hat they will have to break down the door first to do that. If they try to break down the door, the pilots would get alert beforehand and spring into action. Employment of air marshals for security purposes is also one of the options to consider. However it has been found to be too costly as compared to training pilots.
Moreover they find the job to be too boring as it requires them to be sitting at one place all the time which results in them leaving the job.Also it is easier to snatch the weapon from an air marshal than a pilot as he is inside the passenger cabin and he becomes more vulnerable if the hijackers are suicide attackers. There are some apprehensions regarding storage of the weapons on board. Some people say that if the weapons were kept inside the cockpit, there are chances that a stray bullet would come out of the guns and hit the electronic equipments and damage them. In that case it would be fatal.
So some additional arrangements need to be done to store the weapons so that such incidents are avoided.Some people are of the opinion that there would be a decrease in the work efficiency of pilots if they are given this additional responsibility which seems to be a genuine question to ask. Already there is a lot of talk going on regarding pilot fatigue and the accidents resulting from them. The pilots are already overburdened with their flying hours and this additional responsibility would develop additional fatigue in them as they would be mentally involved with this process, if not physically, all the time.
Also at such a time they need to be controlling the aircraft which could otherwise go off balance. Conclusion Presently it seems to be the need of the hour to go for arming airline pilots especially in the growing criminal and terrorist environment. As of now we cannot be hundred percent sure that no terrorist manages to board an aircraft to hijack it especially when very small and ordinary weapons such as pocket knives have been found to be used for this purpose in the past.The security of hundreds of invaluable lives traveling in an airplane should be the utmost priority for which there should be no compromises made. There are of course some issues regarding training of the pilots and others covered in this paper, but the odds definitely seem to favour implementation of pilot arming. The issues however are not too big and should be sorted out as soon as possible.
Once implemented, it will add another level of security to the not so secure aviation sector.Referenceswww.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/crsreports/crsdocuments/RL31674.pdfhttp://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2002/2002-10-02-arm-pilots.htmhttp://johnrlott.tripod.com/armingpilots.html
