Posted on 01/06/2004 10:23:44 PM PST by neverdem
LONDON (AP) -- British pilots won assurances from the government Tuesday that they will be told when armed sky marshals are on board their flights, but demanded to know where the guard is seated and to be able to maintain regular contact.
Meanwhile, a British Airways flight from London to Washington, which was canceled twice last week over security fears, was delayed for the fourth consecutive day Tuesday because of U.S.-requested security checks.
On Tuesday, British Air Line Pilots' Association said it would advise its members - nearly 90 percent of Britain's 9,200 commercial pilots - not to fly with a sky marshal until the government tells them otherwise.
The union feels that the armed guards, which the U.S. Homeland Security Department said last week it would require on selected international flights crossing into American airspace, could be a threat to security.
After reluctantly agreeing to the deployment of government-trained and funded sky marshals, the union now wants a clear industrywide standard for its pilots, including legal and financial indemnity in case of shoot-outs.
"We do not agree in principle with having armed police sky marshals, but it is clear that is the way in which the government wishes to go, and we are not going to be in a position to be completely against the government's policies," Jim McAuslan, BALPA's general secretary, said after meeting with Transport Secretary Alistair Darling.
"Our policy remains the same. Until we have an agreed protocol in place, the advice to our members when confronted with a police sky marshal is that you do not fly," McAuslan said.
Earlier, Darling said the U.S. request for sky marshals on trans-Atlantic flights was "a responsible and prudent step at the present time."
"It is likely that this state of alert will last for some considerable time. It is a consequence of the age in which we live," he said in the House of Commons.
Darling said that pilots would remain in charge of planes "for obvious reasons" but declined to comment in detail on the sky marshals, bypassing questions about the type of guns to be used and the level of training required.
He rejected criticism from fellow Labor Party lawmaker Alan Simpson that the use of guns could increase the risk of "turning air travel into the Wild West of the sky."
"The police officers we are talking about ... are the last line of defense," Darling said. "They are there in case someone tries to take over an aircraft. It is for that reason that they are armed."
The pilots union said the government promised that flight captains will be told when an armed guard is on board.
But the union said it also wants to know where the sky marshal is seated and be able to maintain regular contact - points covered in an agreement it has made with Virgin Airlines. The union is seeking similar assurances from British Airways.
The package tour operator Thomas Cook, meanwhile, stood by commercial airlines from Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Portugal and barred the armed guards from their planes.
"At this time, we would say that we would not be carrying a sky marshal on our planes," said Shaun Robinson, a spokesman for the Thomas Cook, which currently operates two flights a week from Gatwick Airport to Florida. "If we were informed about one wanting to board, we would cancel the flight."
On Monday, British Airways Flight 183 from Heathrow to New York was canceled after U.S. authorities asked for 3 1/2 hours of additional security checks. The 262 passengers were rescheduled to depart Tuesday.
Several countries have rejected the call for the armed guards by the United States, which fears that a commercial aircraft could again be used as a missile in a terrorist attack similar to the one on Sept. 11, 2001.
Civil aviation authorities in Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Portugal all said they would not allow the sky marshals to travel and would instead cancel flights if there was a strong suspicion of a planned attack.
Eva Axne of the Swedish Aviation Authority said the agency "reached an understanding" with the U.S. Transportation Security Administration that Sweden will strengthen ground security instead.
"But if the U.S. consider the threat so serious that they will still demand armed guards onboard, we will cancel the flight," she added.
South African Airways also said it did not believe marshals were warranted and that its present security arrangements, emphasizing prevention on the ground, were adequate.
Other countries, including France, Germany and Canada, supported the plan, with some saying that sky marshals have been in the air for months.
A spokesman for Germany's pilot association, Georg Fongern, said the union agreed to terms with the airlines and the German Interior Ministry.
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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