SWA Bubba

Good idea. The TOTD thread is exactly that, a lighthearted thread for "tool"-related anecdotes; so here's a new thread with responses to questions raised by my FFDO comment in the tool thread. Tell us what you think. (and dont' forget why! )

I'm also looking forward to the good doctor (CardioMD) getting back to us on this new thread, with his presentation of facts and statistics that support his vast array of heretofore speculative opinions and personal prejudices.

"Groupthink"? I'm sorry, but were you referring to Monkeyfly, simply because he posted that he agreed with me? You know, an almost word-for-word identical post as the one that you made on the page before, saying that you agree with CardioMD's point of view. Does that make you a "groupthinker" as well? Maybe we should take a look at that.

Hmmm...let me see if I've got this right: You, Packrat, wholeheartedly profess your agreement with the doctor's political ideal, without any critical thinking whatsoever, without any of your own research or fact-finding, and with nothing but scorn for anyone who may disagree with you. You apparently have absolutely nothing to demonstrate reason for your claims or accusations, but you believe them nonetheless, based on belonging to a group of like-minded individuals and their professed common opinion about what they think.

What's that called again?

To be honest, Iceman, I'm not exactly sure what the laws specifically said or did not say back then. I was still in the military in 1987, but in my research on the internet, I found literally dozens of articles and other references referring to the fact that some pilots were armed until 1987. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a specific, organized group (like the current FFDO program), but rather individual pilots, based on it being legal for them to fly armed until the law changed at that time.

I also don't have time to slog through the federal register for the specific law that halted the ability of pilots to fly armed, but I suspect it was one of the aviation laws passed in response to the the PSA Flight 1771 murder-suicide crash, brought about by a disgruntled former PSA ticket agent sneaking a gun onto the flight, and killing everyone aboard (a few by gunfire, but most by the resultant crash).

The newspaper articles and other literature I found also mentioned that many commercial pilots spoke out at that time, against the change, and predicted that removing the ability of pilots to fly armed would result in more air piracy or "aircraft takeovers."

And in the cruelest of ironies, one of those pilots who spoke out against the change and predicted more cockpit takeover attempts, was the late Victor Saracini. On September 11, 2001, Saracini was the unarmed captain of United flight 175, when he was murdered on his own flightdeck, by a terrorist wielding a small cutting instrument; following which his aircraft was used as a WMD, and intentionally crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Center.

Bubba