Not AT: Passengers urged to defend planes

[Guest guest]

I know a lot of us fly and this is some info for all of us .....

 

Chris

http://www.alittleolfactory.com

 

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Passengers urged to defend planes

http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/21/gen.attacks.taking.charge.ap/

 

September 21, 2001 Posted: 5:44 PM EDT (2144 GMT)

(AP) -- 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., September 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 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

September 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 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. "

 

Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Here is the Washington Times Commentary from a reporter on the flight

mentioned in my first post with this subject title ....

 

Chris

 

http://www.alittleolfactory.com

 

 

~~~~~~~

Aboard Flight 564

http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20010919-6357240.htm

 

Peter Hannaford

 

As it was at most U.S. airports, last Saturday was the first

near-normal day at Denver International since the terrorist attacks. On

United's Flight 564 the door had just been locked and the plane was about to

pull out of the gate when the captain came on the public address system.

 

" I want to thank you brave folks for coming out today. We don't have

any new instructions from the federal government, so from now on we're on

our own. "

 

The passengers listened in total silence.

 

He explained that airport security measures had pretty much solved the

problem of firearms being carried aboard, but not weapons of the type the

terrorists apparently used, plastic knives or those fashioned from wood or

ceramics.

 

" Sometimes a potential hijacker will announce that he has a bomb. There

are no bombs on this aircraft and if someone were to get up and make that

claim, don't believe him.

 

" If someone were to stand up,brandish something such as a plastic knife

and say 'This is a hijacking' or words to that effect here is what you

should do: Every one of you should stand up and immediately throw things at

that person - pillows, books, magazines, eyeglasses, shoes -anything that

will throw him off balance and distract his attention. If he has a

confederate or two, do the same with them. Most important: get a blanket

over him, then wrestle him to floor and keep him there. We'll land the plane

at the nearest airport and the authorities will take it from there. "

 

" Remember, there will be one of him and maybe a few confederates, but

there are 200 of you. You can overwhelm them.

 

" The Declaration of Independence says 'We, the people' and that's just

what it is when we're up in the air: we, the people, vs. would-be

terrorists. I don't think we are going to have any such problem today or

tomorrow or for a while, but some time down the road, it is going to happen

again and I want you to know what to do.

 

" Now, since we're a family for the new few hours, I'll ask you to turn

to the person next to you, introduce yourself, tell them a little about

yourself and ask them to do the same. "

 

The end of this remarkable speech brought sustained clapping from the

passengers. He had put the matter in perspective. If only the passengers on

those ill-fated flights last Tuesday had been given the same talk, I

thought, they might be alive today. One group on United Flight 93, which

crashed in a Pennsylvania field, apparently rushed the hijackers in an

attempt to wrest control from them. While they perished, they succeeded in

preventing the terrorist from attacking his intended goal, possibly the

White House or the Capitol.

 

Procedures for dealing with hijackers were conceived in a time when the

hijackers were usually seeking the release of jailed comrades or a large

amount of money. Mass murder was not their goal. That short talk last

Saturday by the pilot of Flight 564 should set a new standard of realism.

 

Every passenger should learn the simple - but potentially life-saving -

procedure he outlined. He showed his passengers that a hijacking does not

have to result in hopelessness and terror, but victory over the

perpetrators.

 

The Airline Pilots Association, the pilots' union, last week dropped

its opposition to stronger cockpit doors and is now calling for retrofits.

(It's opposition was based on pilot concerns about getting out easily in

emergency situations.) The scandal of easily penetrated airport security

will result in congressional calls for a federal takeover of the security

system.

 

Previous efforts to reform security procedures and raise standards have

been talked to death. This time, however, no lobbying efforts must be

allowed to prevent airport security from getting the reforms that are

needed: federal operation, rigorous training, decent pay and no foreign

nationals eligible for employment.

 

 

Peter Hannaford is a public affairs consultant.

[Guest guest]

There have been lots of rumors about the attacks, a lot of them showing up

via email as they're passed from list to list. The Snopes site has a page

about them. On this page, you'll find the " devil " photos, the number 11,

and more, including the story below. When I checked Snopes yesterday, the

story was listed as being of indeterminate origin, and unverified as true or

false. They've apparently been able to verify that it is indeed true since

then. You'll find the page an interesting read.

 

http://www.snopes2.com/info/rumors.htm

 

I originally got this story via another list. When I read it, I had to

smile. I could just see a hijacker brandishing a plastic knife as however

many other passengers threw magazines, bags of nuts, pillows, and whatever

at him. It kind of reminds me of the movies where a group of kids are

taking on the bad adults. If this type of incident ever happens again, I do

hope one of the passengers drop kicks the hijacker where it hurts most.

 

> Passengers urged to defend planes

> http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/21/gen.attacks.taking.charge.ap/