WRAL has a few more details on the recent accidental discharge of a U.S. Airways pilot’s gun. It seems the gun went off during approach – the most critical phase of flight.
Mike Boyd, an aviation consultant, said he supports the program to arm pilots, saying, “if somebody who has the ability to fly a 747 across the Pacific wants a gun, you give it to them.” But he said Saturday’s incident could have been much worse.
Um, no. When you do it for a living, flying becomes like driving does: a complicated process that one eventually learns to do without thinking. And just because you’re competent to steer a plane doesn’t make you competent to handle a weapon, especially at 30,000 feet.
Pilots are paid to fly the plane. They are not paid to play cowboy. Guns on planes do more harm than good. After getting strip-searched at the security checkpoint and dumping out my water bottles, the last thing I want is to die because some idiot in the cockpit doesn’t know how to handle a weapon. Any pilot who isn’t smart enough to fly with the gun unloaded (or with the safety on, at the very least) isn’t smart enough to fly armed.
Please do your target practice on your own time, Cap’n, and focus on landing the plane.
Still the account is content free. No details on the actual incident just bogus rationalizations about why the program exists. The thing about guns is that they are really simple. If they are properly maintained and properly configured they don’t go off all that easily. However if you cock one it goes off very easily… Even with a safety certain guns are notoriously dangerous when they are cocked (the WW II German side arm, the P-38 will discharge when the safety is taken off the gun). Was this gun cocked? Was it dropped? What kind of gun was it. I have trouble understanding how it could go off without some pretty irresponsible action.
Did a quick search on “accidental discharge police” and I didn’t come up with anything like support for this really being an accident. One former TSM said that his memory of the requirements said that a gun should be uncocked and in a holster when on the airplane and there is no threat.