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CNN Saturday Morning News
At Airports, Lines Increase in Pace With Security
Aired September 29, 2001 - 09:34 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.
JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: National Guard troops are taking up positions at major airports across the United States as part of President Bush's plan to beef up airport security in the wake of the suicide hijackings.
CNN's Kathleen Koch is at Dulles Airport outside Washington -- Kathleen.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, the lines are beginning to increase here at Dulles Airport. Earlier this morning, people had to wait about 40 minutes in line just to get up to the ticket counter. Now it's about an hour. But obviously there are a lot of precautions that are in place, a lot of security. And some of the people flying are actually sometimes those who are in the cockpit.
With me right now is Mr. Joe Rooney, who is an 11-year pilot, a veteran here, and also a Marine.
Mr. Rooney, what are your thoughts about some of the proposals that came out this week that actually President Bush opted not to go for, such as allowing pilots like yourself in the cockpit to carry a weapon?
JOE ROONEY, DELTA PILOT: Well, I think that carrying weapons is a good idea for pilots. I think probably 90 percent of all pilots are trained in the military, and certainly they're capable of handling weapons. Some of the other issues the president brought in certainly are going to increase security, and just heighten it in everybody's mind. And that in and of itself is a good idea.
KOCH: There was a lot of concern on the part of the airlines themselves and the flight attendants when it came to the subject of arming pilots. They said that if the point is to prevent things like this in the future, to strengthen the cockpit doors, to really insulate you from the people in the cabin, then what is the point of having a gun if you are not supposed to open that door?
ROONEY: I think deterrence is a large part of it right there, and I think anybody that puts themselves in someone's shoes that is going to try and threaten a cockpit is going to be far less apt to do so if they know that people are armed. You know, it's the same with Mr. Lott wrote the book that armed people basically are less apt to being attacked than unarmed people are. I just agree with that issue. KOCH: Does it at all put your concerns to rest, the plan to step up the federal air marshal program, to get more and more of them flying in the cabins of your aircraft?
ROONEY: Sure. Again, that's another deterrent issue. I think more air marshals coupled with armed pilots, I think all law enforcement officers ought to be carrying their weapons at all time, whether they're on duty or off duty. And we probably ought to look into having all military officers carry their weapons also. These people are all trained, they're all already on the payroll in one respect or another. And they're all responsible for national defense or personal defense in one issue. And I think that'll all help address it.
KOCH: And in conclusion, one other idea is putting a camera actually in the cabin, so that you can see what's happening on your plane while you're flying. What do you think about that idea?
ROONEY: I don't really know enough about that at that time. We have a lot to do already. I don't think there's time really to be flipping on a little TV screen to watch what's going on back in the cockpit -- or in the cabin. We have pretty good communication between the flight attendants and the cockpit crew as it is right now.
KOCH: Thank you, Joe Rooney, Delta Airlines pilot.
Some of the other things that we see going on here today, indeed, part of the stepped-up security. We're seeing profiling going on. That's where a person's name at random is kicked out of the computer, and their bags are intensely searched. We got some tape of that earlier, basically a person's name is at random, again, selected for no particular reason, and their bags are searched from top to bottom.
Also, as people are leaving here from getting their luggage checked into going through the security checkpoints, we're seeing some changes there at the security checkpoints. Nobody getting their bags searched, as we can see at this point. But at the security checkpoints, people are not only going through the magnetometer, but they're also getting patted down, which is a new step.
Back to you, John.
KING: Kathleen Koch, thank you very much.
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