Read what a Pilot has to say

-------- Original Message --------

Geoff Metcalf, a radio talk host and pilot, received this email which is
apparently being forwarded through out the professional aviation
community. I thought it worth passing along. I hadn't seen it. This is
radical by some standards. Don't read it if you are "sensitive".

Bruce A. Frank

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My name is John Burnett. I am a DC-10 Captain for FedEx. I
am also a Police Officer for the
Memphis Police Department.

My purpose in writing this is to share some of my thoughts
regarding actions a pilot might consider when faced
with a modern-day hijacker. These thoughts are
"outside-the-box" when it comes to the way we've all been
trained. Neither the FAA or our companies will suggest any of
these techniques or implement them as a part of
our normal training cycles. They couldn't for fear of
lawsuits.

I am distributing this via e-mail to buddies I've flown with.
I'm asking them to send it to their circle of friends
within the industry, and for you to send it to yours. I know
most of us have e-mail, and I hope this reaches the
next to face the horror of some religious fanatic onboard.

We have all had "training" in what to do in case of a
hijacking; try to keep the hijacker calm, make him think
you're doing what he wants, take him where ever he wants to
go, etc., etc., etc. Save your passengers, your crew,
and your aircraft.

In an emergency, you will revert to that training. When our
unfortunate peers were faced with the screams of the
Flight Attendants and hijacker's demands to open the cockpit
door, their training probably made them open the
door. When the fanatics made demands, their training told
them to comply as best they could. I can only wonder
what their thoughts were as they left the cockpit and were
tied up in the back of the plane; what they thought as
they descended over New York.. I hope the fanatics had to kill
them in their seats and drag their dead bodies out
of the cockpit. But, I bet they did as they were trained to
do..

As you look back over recent hijackings, FedEx, Egypt Air, and
now the September 11th hijackings, you see a
perpetrator who, for one reason or another wants to take over
the airplane and kill himself. Each of these
hijackers, except for the FedEx incident, were successful.
They took over the airplane and killed everyone
onboard.

If you're following the news programs today, you hear a lot
about how we could let these hijackers learn to fly.
You would think if knowing how to fly would guarantee a
successful hijacking, Auburn Calloway (the FedEx
hijacker) would have been a hijacker success story. He was a
Navy pilot, a martial arts student, a fellow FedEx
crewmember, and he took all the weapons he needed: hammers,
knives and a spear gun. He didn't have to
overcome any Flight Attendants or demand they open the cockpit
door. He just went back to his bag, took out his
hammer came back into the cockpit and started crushing skulls.

The crewmembers on that flight didn't worry about Flight
Attendants, they didn't worry about passengers. All
three pilots left the cockpit and fought a hand-to-hand,
life-or-death battle.

To survive today's hijacker, you cannot worry about your
passengers; you cannot worry about your Flight
Attendants. You must develop a mind-set that everyone onboard
- including yourself - is already dead. Because,
if the hijacker is successful in taking over your airplane,
not only you, your crew, your passengers and your
aircraft are lost, but thousands on the ground are at risk.

One of the reasons the FedEx crew survived, is the
extraordinary actions of the co-pilot. Although he had brain
injury, the co-pilot took the DC-10 and immediately executed a
half-roll. This maneuver took the hijacker off his
feet as the Captain and S/O were struggling with him. During
a point in the maneuver, the hijacker, Captain and
S/O were thrown back behind the cockpit door. When he righted
the airplane, the F/O then left his seat and joined
the fight in the galley area of the plane. It was only after
the Captain determined the hijacker was subdued, he
returned to the cockpit and flew the airplane to landing.

Very few of us have had to confront true evil. Fewer still
have seriously considered taking the life of another
human being. I believe this is the reason the FedEx crew did
not kill their attacker. The crew's heroism that day is
beyond belief and any action that leads to a safe landing and
recovery cannot be argued with. But, when the
Captain left the F/O and S/O, thinking the situation was under
control, he was mistaken. The F/O and S/O had
sustained serious, life-threatening injuries. The hijacker
had not. As the Captain flew the aircraft, the hijacker,
who had surrendered, began the fight anew. As the airplane
landed, the hijacker was just moments away from
overcoming the two crewmembers.

I mention this for your consideration. I would suggest that
you make the conscious decision to kill anyone who
tries to take your airplane from you.

Today we are at war. The hijacker who comes through your
cockpit door is going to kill you and everyone
onboard.

So, how do you do that? What weapons are available to us as
pilots?

The intercom.
Command that all men come forward and fight with the
hijackers. You have many able-bodied men onboard.
They are sitting in shock not knowing what to do. Command
they come forward and help you kill your attackers.
And, they will come.

The airplane itself.
Get the hijackers off their feet. Go into an immediate dive
to float them to the ceiling. Then execute a 6G positive
maneuver and hope they hit their head or break their back as
they hit the floor, galley shelf, etc.

Dump the cabin - maybe one of the hijackers has a head cold.
Pull the fire handles, shut the start levers and turn the fuel
valves off. If you loose the battle, at least the airplane
won't be used as a guided missile on a kamikaze mission. With
luck, maybe these guys didn't learn how to do an
in-flight restart. Then leave the cockpit -all of you, and
kill your attackers - don't believe it when they surrender
-don't be nice to them - KILL THEM.

Flare Gun
If your airplane has one, the Captain might consider making
sure it's loaded and secured next to his bag. I can
think of nothing more satisfying than watching a ball of
burning phosphorous embedded into a fanatic's gut,
burning its way through him.

The crash-axe.
I would suggest you have your co-pilot take it from it's
holder and secure it next to him so he has it immediately
available. Makes an excellent skull crusher.

Your flashlight.
The FAA use to require a 2 cell. A 3 cell Mag-Light makes an
excellent weapon. If your maneuvers have the
hijackers on the floor writhing in pain, crush their skulls
with it.

Your stolen hotel bic pen.
Drive it into an attacker's eye, ear, throat, or into the area
just under the jaw bone. That's a particular interesting
place to drive it, because when he opens his mouth to scream,
you can read "Hyatt" sticking there.

Your hand and fingers
Drive your fingers into his eyes and try to feel your
fingernails scrape the back of his eye sockets. Scoop the
eyeballs out. It will confuse the hell out of him when he
finds himself looking at his shoes as they dangle there on
the ocular nerves.

Your teeth.
Remember Hannabal Lecter. Eat a nose, a cheek, or a finger.
And keep eating. Attack with all viciousness. A
piranha is a small fish, but it's greatly feared. A hijacker
is not expecting you to eat him and it might make him
forget why he got on your airplane to begin with. It will, at
least, impress his buddies.

Now here's my wish-list of things the FAA could do to help,
especially in this time of war.

Arm the Captain
The battle is not going to require any long shots and a small
revolver would be a good choice. It would hold off
the attackers long enough for you to disable your aircraft.
If the attackers claimed the red package they were
holding was a bomb, I'd shoot out the door glass and hope the
door would be ripped out and the hijacker and his
package would be sucked out. And hey, if I got sucked out
with him, I'd try to fly myself to the hijacker look in
his face and laugh at him all the way to the ground.

Invite the local Police to jumpseat
Police are always looking for something free. Donut shops use
to be a favorite target for robbers - until they
started giving donuts to the Police. Robbers don't rob donut
shops anymore. I would suggest each Police
Department send the FAA a list of the best shots on the
department and those guys and their guns would be
welcome on my airplane. Fill every vacant seat with armed
Police - give them a donut - and tell them to shoot
anyone who gives your Flight Attendant any shit.

Stop this silly no-knife rule.
Make it public. Tell the public they're welcome to bring
their pocket knives onboard. Then everyone will bring
them. When you make your intercom call for help, you'll have
a dozen or more knife wielding helpers trying to
make sure their new Gerber tastes fanatics blood. There are
even a few of them who'd want to keep ears as
souvenirs.

Law enforcement agencies are all aware there are copy-cat
criminals and fanatics. We have a number of loony
fanatical hate-groups here in the USA: ALF, PETA, KKK, Army
of God, Anti-abortionists, and the list goes on.
It doesn't matter the size of your airplane. Right now, as I
write this, there is an anti-abortionist escapee here in
the Memphis area. He's seen what happened at the World Trade
Center. A small commuter plane would do a
great job on an abortion clinic, or on an animal research
facility, or on a local synagogue, mosque, etc., etc., etc.....

None of us is immune. Take some time and consider your
actions if this event should ever happen to you.

My prayer is none of you ever have to face this kind of
decision.

Best of luck to you, and may God Bless

John Burnett

THAT's a pilot?!?

Man, if that is really done by a pilot, I'll never board a commercial flight again. Whoever wrote that should get some professional help. It's way, way too bloodthirsty to be taken seriously. My guess is that either some pilots (at least this one) are complete psychopaths, or that this writ is merely a hoax. And, no, I don'T belive for one second that it was spread on some professional avainistics network - if it was, the author (if know) will probably be institutionalized. Nothing against self defense, especially if thousands of lifes are at stake... but -

"Your stolen hotel bic pen.
Drive it into an attacker's eye, ear, throat, or into the area
just under the jaw bone. That's a particular interesting
place to drive it, because when he opens his mouth to scream,
you can read "Hyatt" sticking there.

Your hand and fingers
Drive your fingers into his eyes and try to feel your
fingernails scrape the back of his eye sockets. Scoop the
eyeballs out. It will confuse the hell out of him when he
finds himself looking at his shoes as they dangle there on
the ocular nerves.

Your teeth.
Remember Hannabal Lecter. Eat a nose, a cheek, or a finger.
And keep eating. Attack with all viciousness. A
piranha is a small fish, but it's greatly feared. A hijacker
is not expecting you to eat him and it might make him
forget why he got on your airplane to begin with. It will, at
least, impress his buddies."


Right. Anything else, Stephen King jr.?

I back almost all suggestions there, with one major exception: Don't allow ordinary passengers to bring knives on board. In my business, I had to use planes extremely frequently, and I've seen too many individuals losing their control because of alcohol, often in combination with flight phobia. Quite often, it takes more than four or five able-bodied and courageous passengers to overpower an unarmed drunkard. To risk having knife fights on even one per thousand flights (that's about the statistic rate) would still cause more deaths than the plane attack on Pentagon each year. No need to grant the terrorists that kind of satisfaction, is there?

As for armed cops, I'm not sure. I think you need special training, and special guns. If every cop with a loose trigger finger gets a chance to fire his gun inside an airplane at 30,000 ft, that would have a much more disastrous effect on world aviation than any terrorist can cause. The German government has already decided to have specially armed and trained flight marshals on every commercial flight in near future (the training takes a while). El Al and Ethiopian Airlines (!) have implemented this measure decades ago! In one incident, Ethiopian marshals even remembered to wrap a towel around the hijacker's neck before slitting his throat, to prevent the blood messing up the cabin too much!

And as we've seen, the terrorists are organized very well. Who says they won't be able to forge a cop's ID in order to get aboard with a gun? No need to provoke that, air marshals with proper training and after a severe vetting procedure will do the job much safer and better.

But in all the other aspects, I agree with the pilot wholeheartedly!

As to the self defense methods criticized by Marauder, I must say that I was taught exactly the same hideous details during a special, out-of- the-ordinary training in the German army. Quite sure, several former Vietnam fighters have undergone - and applied - the same training!

Yep, but...

It's not the methods in and of themselves that strike me as odd. I know them, too. It's the extremely graphic descriptions. It reads like a horror-novel, rather than self-defense instructions. You don't go around finding the writing on a pen, visible inside the mouth after you pierce the throat, amusing as a well-adjusted person. It's a horrible shock to hurt another human in these extreme ways, and few people can manage it, even under duress. No sane person would look at the carnage, surveying the bloodshed gleefully, and find it interesting or amusing. I know I would puke my heart out, were I ever forced to mutilate or kill in self defense. That's what I found odd about the article.

Yeah..but

As an ex-bouncer and a "big" person, I'd like to add my 2 cents here...often when trying to subdue/remove/harm an individual that required such treatment, our biggest problem was in getting TOO much help. We often ended up inflicting the greatest amount of harm upon each other in these circumstances. Seems to me that the aisle and general space aboard an airplane wouldn't allow for much in the way of maneuvering...a crucial part of any serious confrontation. The armed sky marshall idea will be modified, most especially their weaponry (its come a looong way), to include non hull penetrating ammo and other such interesting tidbits that don't need to be described in this or any other forum. We should leave matters to those trained in the correct techniques if possible, and THEN and only then fight like rabid banshees with any and all available weapons (get a womans nail file...nasty point on that sucker, same goes for a solid heeled shoe...no tickling till after the bad guys are dead/gone though fellas). Gotta agree in general with marauder on this one though guys...that could have been worded a bit more solidly, but perhaps it was written in an emotional state. Death to our enemies, and the beer is on me when we land. Q

Have to disagree with you, Q, and Marauder too. "Way too bloodthirsty..." Not at all - Mr. Barnett just writes like he's been out there on the sharp end. Furthermore, there's a point to the graphic images he used that goes beyond mere frightfulness.

There are no rules in a life-and-death struggle. As Hal noted, you do ANYTHING necessary to defeat your enemy. (So you wore the feldgrau, mein alte Kamerad? Somehow, I'm not surprised.) In close combat, you never assume that your enemy is incapacitated, or has given up, unless he has also stopped breathing. Safest for you and everyone else to make sure that he does.

Most people will freeze in a life-and-death situation. If you want regular folks to defend themselves, you have to get past "Thou shalt not kill" and "This can't be happening." The graphic images used are the first step along that path, because if the situation drops in the pot, that's exactly what you'll see. You may have to gouge out your opponent's eyeballs, or bite through his carotid artery. Feel free to puke afterward - that's a common enough reaction. But never hesitate, because your opponent won't, and don't stop until he's dead.

Strelnikov

I agree that this must have been written in a highly emotional state of mind. But alas, it's no good to describe these atrocities in a purely technical manner. Why?

My army trainer for unarmed combat was a retired mercenary from the French Foreign Legion who had fought in Algeria, Dien Bien Phu, Oman, and somewhere in Central Africa, and his descriptions used to be even more colorful than those of the pilot in this article. He even showed us slides of injuries inflicted by these methods. Several of us had to puke right there in the class room! We asked him afterwards why he used such cruel language and pics, and he replied that each of us should be aware of the extreme danger of these methods. These techniques were only to be applied in mortal danger, especially when the 'enemy' heavily outnumbers you. Nobody should try to apply these techniques in an ordinary brawl. The extreme cruelty of language and pics were used to prevent us from using these methods lightly. We had to be afraid of these methods to raise up our self-control barrier, but we had to train them for extreme situations.

BTW, I am rather sure that the Taliban terrorists have learnt these techniques at their training camps as well, and their personal inhibitions to apply them would be practically non-existent!

Strelnikov, the Wehrmacht ‚Feldgrau' went out of use after WW2. In my time, the German Bundeswehr wore NATO-olive…

I thought whoever wrote this was serious but also amusing in a "morbid humor" type of way.

In a life and death situation, when all decisions depend on what is going to happen next, I'm all for the most vicious fighting you can sum up.

If I was able to, I would definitely contemplate most if not all of the things that the pilot described. I've taught my own mother some of these moves for a rape/assault scenario!

I still think I'm as well adjusted as the next guy.

Just my own thoughts on the matter from one woman's point of view.

I Knew That...

...about olive versus feldgrau, but it slipped my mind. Sorry, Hal.

I knew an ex-Legionnaire like your unarmed combat instructor - German WWII veteran who joined the Legion to get out of postwar Germany. His service resume was similar. When I met him, he was living in France but had come to the USA to visit his sister, who had married an American.

My unarmed combat instructor said the same as yours: "Don't try this at home." It's odd how it seems to stay with you for years. My great-uncle, a WWI infantryman, got into a brawl at age 60 with two guys half his age. He beat the s#!t out of both of them in about 10 seconds flat, because he knew the moves, they didn't, and he hesitated not at all.

I'm glad I had the opportunity to learn unarmed combat techniques, but even more glad that I never had to use them. My favorite martial art was always Shotgun-Do anyway.

Strelnikov

Yup..lol

I prefer "Chair Kwan Do"...has better defensive capabilites and less lawsuits.

I agree with Marauder -- this is a hoax

This so-called "DC-10 Captain for Fedex" smacks of some schmuck who wanted to get a lot of anger off his chest, while at the same time sitting back and congratulating himself on fooling the web.

I mean, come on! Nobody with the brains to get through flight training would write: "And hey, if I got sucked out
with him, I'd try to fly myself to the hijacker look in
his face and laugh at him all the way to the ground."

My first response while reading this was 'yeah -- go get 'em cowboy!' And I can understand why people would LIKE to believe there are Pilots out there who think this way. Of course, in our anger following the attack, we'd all like to imagine ourselves being the hero, taking on the terrorist in a Rambo-esqe fashion, and "watching a ball of burning phosphorous embedded into a fanatic's gut, burning its way through him."

But as I read it, and realized that it was nothing more than a put on, it left me with an empty feeling of general irritation.

I agree, no, disagree, no, wait....

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