Pilots rethink security as they return to skies

WASHINGTON -- Flight attendant Bill Geisert refuses to obsess over the "what ifs" when he gets back in the air this week.

But anxious as he is to return, there is no denying his job has changed since Sept. 11.

"My eyes are going to be open," said Geisert, who did not want to disclose his employer. "I'm going to be a lot more aware, and I won't hesitate to inform the cockpit if there's anything at all that bothers me."

The number of dead and missing in the terrorist hijackings and attacks is more than 6,000. Pilots and flight attendants are on guard -- even asking themselves what they would do if the horror were repeated.

And they are not taking chances. Northwest airlines pilots were directed to flee their cockpit through a window and climb down a rope Tuesday night at Dulles International Airport near Washington after a flight attendant "perceived a threat against the flight," said Northwest spokesman Doug Killian, who would not elaborate.

Authorities said there was no hijacking attempt and no emergency -- just a misunderstanding. The flight of 215 passengers and 11 crew members was preparing to leave for Amsterdam, Netherlands. It was canceled and passengers were taken to hotels.

The day before, police removed three people from an American Airlines flight that had landed at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. The three had locked themselves in the bathroom and refused to take their seats before landing.

Act aggressively

Flight crews had been trained to cooperate with hijackers. But no more. The Air Line Pilots Association union is advising its members to act aggressively when confronted by hijackers -- such as depressurizing the cabin or maneuvering sharply to keep assailants off balance.

The Association of Flight Attendants wants the federal government to take over airport security screening and national limits on carryon baggage.

Privately, pilots and flight attendants say they will watching passengers more closely, and that race is an unfortunate but unavoidable factor. The hijackers were of Middle Eastern descent.

In preflight briefings, they are working out code words to alert the cockpit if an emergency develops in the cabin. And they're limiting crew access to cockpits.

US Airways pilot David Richards of Charlotte, N.C., said if his plane was hijacked, he would not give up his seat alive. The pilots of the four hijacked planes probably did not either, he said. "I can guarantee you those pilots did not fly those airplanes into those buildings -- not in a million years," he said.