BA pilots hostile to sky marshals plan
British Airways has admitted many pilots will refuse to fly with so-called sky marshals on board aircraft given the ‘significant threat’ to passengers.
Last week, the Department of Transport pressed ahead with plans to place armed guards aboard planes as a last defence against terror attacks.
BA was forced to cancel flight 223 from Heathrow to Washington for two days running and Friday’s and Saturday’s flights to and from the Saudi capital Riyadh.
Several Air France flights and an Aeromexico flight to Los Angeles have also been cancelled.
The Observer newspaper claims BA executives are fundamentally opposed to the scheme.
Mike Street, BA’s operations director, in a memo sent to colleagues on Friday, said the airline “would not operate a single flight unless we were satisfied totally that it was safe to do so.”
He added: ‘If there is security information about a particular flight that gives us cause for concern, then we will not operate that flight. That remains our policy regardless of the Government’s capability to deploy armed police officers.’
A spokesman for the British Air Line Pilots Association (Balpa), said sky marshals “will never fly.”
‘If you’re told there’s a perceived risk, you’re not going to run it. No one in their right mind would say “Don’t worry, we’ll put sky marshals aboard it”.’
Transport Secretary Alistair Darling said sky marshals would be used only when a specific threat was made apparent.
There are reports in the Sunday newspapers that al-Qaeda terrorists are planning an imminent shoe-bomb attack on an airliner.
