September 11 was “as if someone raped your wife, with you looking on unable to do anything”

The International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations (IFALPA) said in Palma yesterday that had Monday's air accident in New York been another terrorist attack “we're not sure we could recover from it.” Paul McCarthy, IFALPA's Vice Principal Technical Standards Director, attending one of two international air security meetings being held in Spain, made it quite clear that international and US pilots are united in making sure that September 11 “never happens again.” McCarthy said “the international pilot community has recognised since September 11 that we have to work with governments, airlines and manufacturers to completely re-think the way we protect our civilian aircraft from terror.” Since September 11, the airline sector has been holding regular meetings to address the problems and discuss solutions to the security threats, both in the short and the long term. The main issue, one of many which will be discussed by air industry chiefs in Geneva today, is dealing with security away from the airplane. In the long term aircraft may have to be redesigned with security in mind, “but we can not transform aircraft into flying fortresses,” McCarthy said.