And now let’s take a flight with the politically incorrect airline pilot

View Comments (4)

• You know, all the pilots had to do was to slam the stick forward and then pull back hard. It's rather difficult to slit one's throat when you're ping-ponging between the ceiling and the floor. This is why you should always keep your seat belt on.

  But having firearms works just as well. Only problem I see with carrying those firearms that they mentioned was the potential for over penetration. I think something in a .45 ACP would be a little more appropriate. A big, slow slug would be ideal for a shootout in an airplane. You want the slug to stay in your target and not go through to a passenger.

  • It would have to be expanding ammunition...and there's still the chance that it might overpenetrate, depending where it hits.
    But standard .45 ACP loads are not THAT slow...a 230 gr slug can have muzzle velocities of around 800 to 850 feet per second (depending on manufacturer, barrel length and other factors). Lighter slugs can go faster, especially in +P loads.
    And come to think of it, there probably aren't that many walls or partitions inside an airplane that can stop a handgun round, maybe slow it down enough and deflect it, but I'm not really sure...They sure go through drywall like a hot knife through butter and still have enough velocity to make it to the neighbor's house though.

    But if you ask me, inside an airplane it's better to risk overpenetration or even a stray shot, than letting some jackass take the whole airplane down with everyone in it. And whoever carries a gun better take it upon himself or herself to train with it well to minimize the chance of that happening.
    There's also frangible ammunition...that could be a good alternative for an environment such as an airplane.

• Gun talk... Sexy.

• Had this been the case in your typical passenger airliner, 9/11/2001 would have probably been just another Tuesday morning with 4 attempted hijackings.