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Interview With Bob Lambert

Aired August 08, 2003 - 13:55   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: You probably heard the government warning that al Qaeda may be planning another late-summer attack involving hijacked airliners. You might say that's OK, those pilots are packing heat now, right? Well, wrong.
Whether you like the idea or not the federal plan to let pilots carry arms is running way behind schedule. Joining us to talk about it Captain Bob Lambert, head of the Airline Pilot Security Alliance, joining us from Pittsburgh. Good to have you with us, Mr. Lambert.

CAPT. BOB LAMBERT, AIRLINE PILOTS SEC. ALLIANCE: Thank you, Mr. O'Brien. Pleasure to be here.

O'BRIEN: All right, give us a sense of how far behind it is. How many pilots are certified to carry weapons on the flight deck right now?

LAMBERT: Well right now, nine months ago, if you remember, the bill was signed by the president. And right now to date, we have somewhere around the neighborhood of 150 FFDO, Federal Flight Deck Officers that have been trained to carry firearms on the flight deck.

O'BRIEN: A hundred and fifty out of about 30,000-plus flights a day. That really isn't much, is it?

LAMBERT: Well whenever you can consider the fact there's about 125,000 commercial airline pilots in the country, and we estimate on the low side 40,000, on the high side, upwards to about 60,000 pilots, would volunteer for this program if it were put together in a common sense way. And our sense of it now is it is not.

O'BRIEN: Why is it not, then?

LAMBERT: Well, right now, they have very nonsensical, psychological background checks we have to go through, upwards from anywhere of a month to two months to get through background checks, psychological interviews. And then that's even before you get to training.

O'BRIEN: Well it seems to me that allowing somebody to carry a weapon on an aircraft like that should require a certain amount of testing.

LAMBERT: Well, yes. We don't advocate just handing over the firearm to the pilot as he goes through operations. Of course we expect to go through some rigorous training. But think about it, we've already -- all pilots in this country have been through background checks already, since September 11. We've had our fingerprints taken. We've already done this.

The TSA says, just in an article yesterday, that it's taken about $6,500 per pilot, for them to train a pilot. Upwards about half of that is for this background investigation, and it is just -- it's redundancy and it's wasting money.

O'BRIEN: All right. We did talk to representative, a spokesperson for the Transportation Safety Administration which oversees all this earlier. They didn't come on camera. But let me give you the gist of what they had to say here. The first thing is that they're saying, you know, we're working as fast as we can, the TSA, that is with the money that we have. How do you respond to that one?

LAMBERT: Well, with the money they have, they readily admit they've had $8 million tucked away for this fiscal year to train pilots.

Right now -- and I would tell you this -- I've talked to many pilots, because of this very intrusive background check they're doing and psychological screening and some of the of the rules of engagement practice they're indulging in, for example, the locked box thing, which is no secret, I mean it's been all over the news since day one, it's ridiculous. It's against all law enforcement practices...

O'BRIEN: You mean to put the gun in a locked box in the cockpit?

LAMBERT: Right, and carry it around.

And we're going through the training. We should be given the responsibility of carrying a firearm like any other law enforcement officer. And there are many pilot that are refusing to volunteer for the program just for that very reason. It's ridiculous.

O'BRIEN: Well I want to get a few more of the TSA points on the screen here so you can respond to them. Basically, they say they'll train until the money runs out. They're obviously asking for money from Congress. And then we'll just reveal one more there. They believe that the money is expected to run out by the end of the year.

The TSA is saying -- it is crying poor mouth. It hasn't been properly funded by Congress. Is that a fair statement?

LAMBERT: Well, I mean you're getting a lot of finger-pointing going here. I know Chairman Mica, for example, is very frustrated with the program. Chairman Mica of the House Aviation Subcommittee. He has come out publicly and basically have told the TSA that they better get their house in order.

And quite frankly, we are tired of all this finger pointing. We need to harden this cockpit against these terrorists. And we need it yesterday. There should be thousands of pilots right no that are armed to do this, not a couple hundred. O'BRIEN: We really out of time, but I've got to ask you, are you flying with a weapon now and do you fell safer, if so?

LAMBERT: I personally am not. And I'm purposely not doing it so that I can do these interviews with you and bring this stuff to light.

O'BRIEN: All right, thank you very much, Bob Lambert. Appreciate you joining us in shedding some light on all this.

LAMBERT: Thank you. I appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired August 8, 2003 - 13:55   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: You probably heard the government warning that al Qaeda may be planning another late-summer attack involving hijacked airliners. You might say that's OK, those pilots are packing heat now, right? Well, wrong.
Whether you like the idea or not the federal plan to let pilots carry arms is running way behind schedule. Joining us to talk about it Captain Bob Lambert, head of the Airline Pilot Security Alliance, joining us from Pittsburgh. Good to have you with us, Mr. Lambert.

CAPT. BOB LAMBERT, AIRLINE PILOTS SEC. ALLIANCE: Thank you, Mr. O'Brien. Pleasure to be here.

O'BRIEN: All right, give us a sense of how far behind it is. How many pilots are certified to carry weapons on the flight deck right now?

LAMBERT: Well right now, nine months ago, if you remember, the bill was signed by the president. And right now to date, we have somewhere around the neighborhood of 150 FFDO, Federal Flight Deck Officers that have been trained to carry firearms on the flight deck.

O'BRIEN: A hundred and fifty out of about 30,000-plus flights a day. That really isn't much, is it?

LAMBERT: Well whenever you can consider the fact there's about 125,000 commercial airline pilots in the country, and we estimate on the low side 40,000, on the high side, upwards to about 60,000 pilots, would volunteer for this program if it were put together in a common sense way. And our sense of it now is it is not.

O'BRIEN: Why is it not, then?

LAMBERT: Well, right now, they have very nonsensical, psychological background checks we have to go through, upwards from anywhere of a month to two months to get through background checks, psychological interviews. And then that's even before you get to training.

O'BRIEN: Well it seems to me that allowing somebody to carry a weapon on an aircraft like that should require a certain amount of testing.

LAMBERT: Well, yes. We don't advocate just handing over the firearm to the pilot as he goes through operations. Of course we expect to go through some rigorous training. But think about it, we've already -- all pilots in this country have been through background checks already, since September 11. We've had our fingerprints taken. We've already done this.

The TSA says, just in an article yesterday, that it's taken about $6,500 per pilot, for them to train a pilot. Upwards about half of that is for this background investigation, and it is just -- it's redundancy and it's wasting money.

O'BRIEN: All right. We did talk to representative, a spokesperson for the Transportation Safety Administration which oversees all this earlier. They didn't come on camera. But let me give you the gist of what they had to say here. The first thing is that they're saying, you know, we're working as fast as we can, the TSA, that is with the money that we have. How do you respond to that one?

LAMBERT: Well, with the money they have, they readily admit they've had $8 million tucked away for this fiscal year to train pilots.

Right now -- and I would tell you this -- I've talked to many pilots, because of this very intrusive background check they're doing and psychological screening and some of the of the rules of engagement practice they're indulging in, for example, the locked box thing, which is no secret, I mean it's been all over the news since day one, it's ridiculous. It's against all law enforcement practices...

O'BRIEN: You mean to put the gun in a locked box in the cockpit?

LAMBERT: Right, and carry it around.

And we're going through the training. We should be given the responsibility of carrying a firearm like any other law enforcement officer. And there are many pilot that are refusing to volunteer for the program just for that very reason. It's ridiculous.

O'BRIEN: Well I want to get a few more of the TSA points on the screen here so you can respond to them. Basically, they say they'll train until the money runs out. They're obviously asking for money from Congress. And then we'll just reveal one more there. They believe that the money is expected to run out by the end of the year.

The TSA is saying -- it is crying poor mouth. It hasn't been properly funded by Congress. Is that a fair statement?

LAMBERT: Well, I mean you're getting a lot of finger-pointing going here. I know Chairman Mica, for example, is very frustrated with the program. Chairman Mica of the House Aviation Subcommittee. He has come out publicly and basically have told the TSA that they better get their house in order.

And quite frankly, we are tired of all this finger pointing. We need to harden this cockpit against these terrorists. And we need it yesterday. There should be thousands of pilots right no that are armed to do this, not a couple hundred. O'BRIEN: We really out of time, but I've got to ask you, are you flying with a weapon now and do you fell safer, if so?

LAMBERT: I personally am not. And I'm purposely not doing it so that I can do these interviews with you and bring this stuff to light.

O'BRIEN: All right, thank you very much, Bob Lambert. Appreciate you joining us in shedding some light on all this.

LAMBERT: Thank you. I appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com