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Flight Attendants Demand Security Training
More than 100 flight attendants marched on Capitol Hill on May 12 to urge Congress to force airlines to finally provide effective security training for flight crews to help prevent or thwart any future attempts at terrorism aboard an airplane.
"After September 11, there was a lot of tough talk from the airlines and the administration promising to close the security loopholes in our aviation system to make flying as secure as possible," President Patricia Friend of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA said at a news conference. Four lawmakers and a flight attendant who lost her son on one of the doomed flights also spoke.
"Two and half years later, flight attendants are still waiting for the most basic training to help us protect our passengers in the aircraft cabin," Friend said. "It should not take another act of terrorism onboard an aircraft to convince the airlines and the Transportation Safety Administration to do their job and give us the training we need to do ours."
Dividing into small groups by state, flight attendants later met with lawmakers to ask them to force the TSA's hand through legislation requiring a mandatory, industry-wide cabin security program, including standardized anti-terrorist and self-defense training.
"I'm here to say to the airline industry, 'Why don't you work with us instead of against us?"' said Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who has introduced the legislation in the Senate. "Flight attendants are the last line of defense against terrorist attacks. But instead of receiving quality security training, the airlines are racing to see who can have the cheapest and quickest program."
Current federal law allows each airline to develop its own security and anti-terrorist training program for flight attendants. Friend said some carriers provide as little as one hour of security training, sometimes just by video presentation, while other airlines are still teaching flight attendants to cooperate with aggressors and try to appease them. Some flight attendants receive no training at all.
The flight attendants were briefed for an hour at CWA headquarters before marching in the heat, many of them in uniform, to the Cannon House Office Building a mile away. Their parade across Capitol grounds drew attention from busloads of students and tourists, who heard them chant "What do we want? ' Security training!' When do we want it? 'Now!"'
In their Capitol Hill meetings, flight attendants asked members of Congress to sign on to letters authored by Senator Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.) and Representative Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) urging the TSA to issue mandatory training regulations for airlines. The TSA already has the authority to require comprehensive training, but hasn't done so.
DeFazio, introduced to the crowd of flight attendants as "our number-one champion in the House of Representatives," said the inaction is part of a pattern he's seeing throughout the homeland security debate: A lot of talk without a willingness to spend the money needed. "We can't have security on the cheap," he said. "We need to be safe in the sky and on the ground."
Senator Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) said the TSA and airlines have made strides in security, such as placing air marshals on many flights and strengthening cockpit doors, but have gotten away with ignoring the call for flight attendant training. "We have tried three times to correct this grievous oversight," he said, referring to major pieces of legislation in 2001, 2002 and 2003. "In this land where we pride ourselves on the rule of law, the TSA and airlines still have not complied with the law. That's outrageous."
Representative Ed Markey (D-Mass.), sponsor of this security-training bill in the House, told the crowd that the TSA "continues to tell us that commercial airlines remain at the top of the terrorist target list. But you are still not receiving meaningful counter-terror training. A 13-minute video of self-defense techniques is not meaningful. A take-home study guide is not meaningful. Inconsistent or non-existent security training is not meaningful."
Her eyes tearing, one speaker brought home the message like no other at the press conference. Alice Hoglan, an AFA-CWA member and recently retired United flight attendant, lost her son, Mark Bingham, on United Flight 93, the flight that ended in a Pennsylvania field after Bingham and fellow passengers fought back against the terrorists.
Hoglan said Congress must step in and force the airlines to do the right thing, because they've demonstrated they won't if given any other options. "It is unconscionable that the decisions about training should be left in the hands of the airlines," she said.
Flight attendants across the country have written about 10,000 letters to the TSA asking the agency to require airlines to provide real training. On Wednesday, Friend, along with the presidents of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants and The Transport Workers Union Local 556, delivered the mail.
"After September 11, there was a lot of tough talk from the airlines and the administration promising to close the security loopholes in our aviation system to make flying as secure as possible," President Patricia Friend of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA said at a news conference. Four lawmakers and a flight attendant who lost her son on one of the doomed flights also spoke.
"Two and half years later, flight attendants are still waiting for the most basic training to help us protect our passengers in the aircraft cabin," Friend said. "It should not take another act of terrorism onboard an aircraft to convince the airlines and the Transportation Safety Administration to do their job and give us the training we need to do ours."
Dividing into small groups by state, flight attendants later met with lawmakers to ask them to force the TSA's hand through legislation requiring a mandatory, industry-wide cabin security program, including standardized anti-terrorist and self-defense training.
"I'm here to say to the airline industry, 'Why don't you work with us instead of against us?"' said Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who has introduced the legislation in the Senate. "Flight attendants are the last line of defense against terrorist attacks. But instead of receiving quality security training, the airlines are racing to see who can have the cheapest and quickest program."
Current federal law allows each airline to develop its own security and anti-terrorist training program for flight attendants. Friend said some carriers provide as little as one hour of security training, sometimes just by video presentation, while other airlines are still teaching flight attendants to cooperate with aggressors and try to appease them. Some flight attendants receive no training at all.
The flight attendants were briefed for an hour at CWA headquarters before marching in the heat, many of them in uniform, to the Cannon House Office Building a mile away. Their parade across Capitol grounds drew attention from busloads of students and tourists, who heard them chant "What do we want? ' Security training!' When do we want it? 'Now!"'
In their Capitol Hill meetings, flight attendants asked members of Congress to sign on to letters authored by Senator Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.) and Representative Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) urging the TSA to issue mandatory training regulations for airlines. The TSA already has the authority to require comprehensive training, but hasn't done so.
DeFazio, introduced to the crowd of flight attendants as "our number-one champion in the House of Representatives," said the inaction is part of a pattern he's seeing throughout the homeland security debate: A lot of talk without a willingness to spend the money needed. "We can't have security on the cheap," he said. "We need to be safe in the sky and on the ground."
Senator Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) said the TSA and airlines have made strides in security, such as placing air marshals on many flights and strengthening cockpit doors, but have gotten away with ignoring the call for flight attendant training. "We have tried three times to correct this grievous oversight," he said, referring to major pieces of legislation in 2001, 2002 and 2003. "In this land where we pride ourselves on the rule of law, the TSA and airlines still have not complied with the law. That's outrageous."
Representative Ed Markey (D-Mass.), sponsor of this security-training bill in the House, told the crowd that the TSA "continues to tell us that commercial airlines remain at the top of the terrorist target list. But you are still not receiving meaningful counter-terror training. A 13-minute video of self-defense techniques is not meaningful. A take-home study guide is not meaningful. Inconsistent or non-existent security training is not meaningful."
Her eyes tearing, one speaker brought home the message like no other at the press conference. Alice Hoglan, an AFA-CWA member and recently retired United flight attendant, lost her son, Mark Bingham, on United Flight 93, the flight that ended in a Pennsylvania field after Bingham and fellow passengers fought back against the terrorists.
Hoglan said Congress must step in and force the airlines to do the right thing, because they've demonstrated they won't if given any other options. "It is unconscionable that the decisions about training should be left in the hands of the airlines," she said.
Flight attendants across the country have written about 10,000 letters to the TSA asking the agency to require airlines to provide real training. On Wednesday, Friend, along with the presidents of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants and The Transport Workers Union Local 556, delivered the mail.