Airlines will meet new cockpit door requirement

? Every large commercial plane flying in the United States will have bulletproof cockpit doors by next week, but airline security experts say the design doesn’t provide the best possible protection against a hijacker entering.

Federal regulations require that cockpit doors be locked during flight, according to Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Les Dorr. But there are times when a pilot may open the door — to visually check wing surfaces, use the bathroom or change flight crews during a long trip.

That leaves the possibility the cockpit could be rushed by a hijacker.

“It’s a barrier when it’s closed, it’s an entry when it’s open,” said Capt. Steve Luckey, chairman of the Air Line Pilots Assn. national security committee.

The need to open cockpit doors was one reason pilots lobbied for guns in the cockpit, Luckey said. Under a test program, about 48 pilots will begin training to carry weapons while flying commercial passenger planes this month. Thousands more could be carrying weapons by the end of the year.

Luckey would like to see another safety measure — a Kevlar curtain that acts as a secondary barrier when the cockpit door is opened. He said the curtain would delay a terrorist long enough for passengers to attack him. Luckey wants Congress to order all planes to have it.

Israel’s national airline, El Al, has among the most stringent security requirements. Its planes have double doors separated by a narrow hallway, said Offer Einav, former security director for the airline. Pilots must close one door before opening the other, he said.

That might not work for U.S. planes, Einav said: The narrow-body planes used for most domestic U.S. flights can’t accommodate a double-door system, and there’s a matter of stringency.

“How strongly are they going to impose the law of flying with a closed door, and are they going to enforce it?” Einav said.

Before the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackings, cockpit doors were designed to provide a quiet office environment for pilots. After the attacks, Congress decided cockpit doors should be designed to protect pilots from attackers. Pilots are to focus on flying, no matter what happens in the cabin.

In the months after the terror attacks, airlines reinforced the existing cockpit doors with metal bars.