Many Pilots Take a Tougher Stance

Reflecting a more sober era of airline travel, some flight crews are urging passengers to resist hijackers, and some pilots are even vowing to keep knives, flashlights or other weapons handy.

Take, for example, the United Airlines captain on a Denver-to-Washington flight Saturday. He reportedly told passengers that 200 passengers far outnumber any hijacking team, and that the Declaration of Independence begins with “We, the People.”

The monologue took passenger Peter Hannaford, a public policy consultant from Washington, by surprise. “Remember, there will be one of him and maybe a few confederates, but there are 200 of you,” Hannaford recalled the captain saying.

The captain urged passengers to stand up immediately and begin throwing shoes, pillows or anything handy at a would-be hijacker, then toss a blanket over him and hold him down until the plane lands, Hannaford said.

Passengers applauded loudly at the announcement, Hannaford recalled. “There was a palpable sense of relief,” he said. “I don’t think there was anyone who didn’t clap.”

United Airlines is investigating the announcement, versions of which were circulated on the Internet by people identifying themselves as passengers on United Flight 564 from Denver to Washington’s Dulles Airport.

On American Airlines Flight 4 from Los Angeles to New York’s Kennedy International Airport, Capt. Kevin Hart adopted a stern tone.

“The curtain between first class and business should be considered impenetrable for all but uniformed flight crew,” Hart warned passengers last weekend. “Seat belts will be buckled at all times except when you need to use the lavatory. This is mandatory. There will no longer be any wandering in the aisles.”

One Dallas-based Delta Air Lines pilot, who asked to remain anonymous, said he will keep a pocketknife at the ready.

“My Leatherman will be out with the knife exposed . . . within hand’s reach,” he said. If he can’t keep the blade out, the pilot said, he has already practiced unfolding it in an emergency. “It took me seven seconds.”

Veteran pilots were not surprised by the tenor of the announcements or by pilots’ vows to arm themselves.

“We’re in a transition period,” said John Mazor, spokesman for the Airline Pilots Assn. “The old procedures--which were very effective against old-style hijackings--they went out the window because they’re really not effective against this kind of attack.”

The old instructions to “accommodate, negotiate and do not escalate” don’t apply to a hijacker bent on death, Mazor said.

The pilots association, which represents 66,000 commercial pilots nationwide, endorses installation of stronger cockpit doors with better locks.

“Nothing is off the table at this point,” said Terry McVenes, the group’s executive director of safety. “Guns [for pilots] are not off the table.”

Short of guns, other measures are being considered.

Some Pilots Take Extreme Steps

“One guy said he was going to lock the cockpit door during the whole flight and have the flight attendants heat his meals and bring them forward before the passengers board,” said one veteran who flies Boeing 737s out of Los Angeles. “Another guy said he was going to [urinate] in a bottle instead of going back to the lavatory. That seems a little excessive to me.

“I know a guy who’s taking the crash ax and putting it on top of his flight bag, right next to him, so it will be there if he needs it,” said the pilot, who did not want to be identified.

Major airlines report that many pilots are sticking to previous routines, limiting flight announcements to destination, cruising altitude and air speed.

Even Southwest Airlines, famed for its offbeat announcements, has been subdued. “We’re discontinuing humorous public announcements,” Wayne Stamps, vice president of the Southwest Airline Pilots Assn., said Thursday.

A Southwest spokeswoman said there is no official policy on the announcements, which are left to the crew’s discretion.

One crew opted to stick with humor. Emerging from a Southwest flight at Ontario Airport, Lisa Nielsen of Washington said an attendant had urged anyone wishing to smoke during the flight to step outside the aircraft.

Such levity, however, is rare.

“We’re staying in the cockpit. But we’re also really looking at the passengers as they come on,” the veteran pilot said as he passed through the security checkpoint in Burbank Airport on Thursday morning. “We’re taking a lot more interest. Myself, I want to look them in the eye. I want to know who’s on my plane.”

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Times staff writers Nita Lelyveld, Eric Malnic, Phil Willon and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar contributed to this report.