WASHINGTON -- Saying air crews face a new kind of threat, the president of the largest U.S. pilots union said on Tuesday he wants to arm them as a last line of defense against hijackers.
Duane Woerth, chief of the Air Line Pilots Association, will ask Congress later in the day at a House of Representatives hearing to support the plan two weeks after hijackers seized four airliners and used three of them to attack the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
"Under these circumstances we think we can increase aviation security in a real way and that's why we are going to propose it today," Woerth told ABC's "Good Morning America."
Woerth, a 747-series captain for Northwest Airlines, proposed that specially screened, trained pilots would be the only ones allowed to carry weapons and that the program would be tightly controlled.
The union, which represents pilots at most major U.S. carriers, envisions a central oversight role for federal law enforcement, which would issue the weapons.
He said carrying a weapon would be voluntary and that the captain on board would hold the ultimate authority.
The pilots union and other security experts have said that the suicidal suspects in the Sept. 11 attacks on U.S. financial and military landmarks rewrote rules for how air crews should respond to hijackings.
"Everything has changed and this is a new, real threat that needs a real solution in real time," Woerth said.
Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Jane Garvey told a news conference in New York on Monday that all security options remained on the table.
U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat who will hold another hearing on airline security on Tuesday, said arming pilots might help law enforcement augment other efforts to man domestic flights with armed personnel.
He said on CBS's "The Early Show" that the government needs to help create conditions for aircraft security and make "passengers feel secure."
Currently, the FAA is building up its air marshals program, which uses armed, plainclothes guards aboard commercial air service.
Woerth conceded there was a risk that future hijackers could seize weapons from the cockpit but said the benefits of having a gun outweighed that risk.
The extraordinary proposal came as lawmakers and the Bush administration accelerated efforts to draft plans for expanding airport and airline security.
The FAA has ordered new security steps in recent days, including an end to curb-side check-in and a ban on knives and other cutting instruments carried onboard.
The agency also has renewed efforts to confirm the identities of airline, airport and contract workers with access to aircraft and sensitive areas of the airport for
Senate and House lawmakers continued to craft bipartisan legislation to boost security after approving a $15 billion industry bailout last week.
While a range of security proposals are being considered, congressional aides and lawmakers have said the central thrust of final legislation would be to restore public confidence in the safety of air travel.
