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Obama's proposed 2013 budget cuts in half funds for the Federal Flight Deck Officer (FFDO) program. The current budget of $25 million a year -- which goes for such things as conducting background checks, training the pilots, and periodic gun proficiency tests and retraining, in addition to administrative costs -- would be cut to $12 million.

The thousands of armed pilots, who greatly outnumber the better-known federal air marshals, volunteer for the job, train at federal academies and are deputized to use their weapons in the cockpit. They call themselves the "single most cost-effective counter-terrorism measure" the government has taken.

The federal government spends about $15 a flight for FFDOs, as armed pilots are called, compared to $3,000 per flight for federal air marshals, said Mike Karn, vice president of the Federal Flight Deck Officers Association. Those numbers are based on costs of the respective programs divided by the number of flights covered by armed pilots and air marshals.

i8godzilla wrote:Can someone tell me how many terrorist attacks were stopped by the FFDO program?

RoyGBiv wrote:

i8godzilla wrote:Can someone tell me how many terrorist attacks were stopped by the FFDO program?

Sarcasm?

IMO, if it costs $25M to keep the program running, it's cheap enough that all we need to do is add $0.10 to every airline ticket to pay for it. And politically speaking.... Is the WH actually proud about saving $12 from our last line of mid-air defense, rather than focusing on fixing the trillion dollar problems we have in healthcare, SS and medicaid.? This is an excellent cost saving measure for our President to brag about.

On March 24, 2008, a US Airways pilot's gun accidentally went off on Flight 1536 from Denver to Charlotte, North Carolina. The pilot was a Federal Flight Deck Officer and was authorized to carry the weapon by the US Transportation Security Administration. No one was injured and the aircraft landed safely.According to the pilot, the gun fired while he was trying to stow it. The bullet went through the side of the cockpit and tore a small hole in the exterior of the plane. The plane was pulled from service for repairs.

On January 13, 2011, a JetBlue pilot's bag carrying his gun was accidentally picked up by a passenger flying to West Palm Beach, Florida. When the passenger realized the bag wasn't hers, she notified a flight attendant.

i8godzilla wrote:Can someone tell me how many terrorist attacks were stopped by the FFDO program?

i8godzilla wrote:Can someone tell me how many terrorist attacks were stopped by the FFDO program?

i8godzilla wrote:Can someone tell me how many terrorist attacks were stopped by the FFDO program? Come to think about it, other than the typical unruly passenger, what have the Air Marshals stopped?

Kythas wrote:I understand the program and believe it has value.

My question is: why does it cost $25 million per year to let a pilot carry a gun on board? How does letting him walk around the metal detectors at the TSA checkpoint cost this much money?

I know - there's bureaucracy involved. I'm only half kidding, though. I seriously don't understand why it would cost anything, really.