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The Senate voted Thursday to allow pilots to carry guns in the cockpit.
The 87-to-6 vote came on an amendment to the bill creating a new homeland security agency. The measure also calls for self-defense training for flight attendants.
The vote came shortly after the Bush administration changed its position today on the issue. The Bush administration is considering a plan to arm a limited number of commercial pilots, as long as a variety of safety and training concerns are addressed. However, administration officials said they had not yet worked out a formal proposal, a senior Bush administration source said.
Supporters say pilots are the last line of defense against a hijacker.
The House of Representatives has already passed separate legislation to arm the nation's commercial pilots, also on a voluntary basis. But the Senate's plan is slightly different. For instance, it also would provide self-defense training for flight attendants. Differences in the two measures would have to be worked out during House and Senate negotiations on the Homeland Security bill.
?? Wire Reports
Intruder Reported at Chemical Weapons Site
T O O E L E, Utah, Sept. 5 - Officials at the Deseret Chemical Depot, which stores and destroys nerve agents, sounded a terrorist alert this morning after a possible intrusion.
One person was spotted within the heavily guarded perimeter, said Shelia Culley, joint information command center manager. It wasn't immediately clear if that person was caught.
The possible intruder was within the fenced area between the stored chemicals and the outer perimeter. Chris Kramer, public information officer with the Utah Department of Public Safety, said the person was seen about one mile north of the weapons incinerator.
Wade Mathews, with the Tooele County Emergency Management, said sheriff's deputies setup a roadblock around the depot after the alarm sounded at 9:24 a.m. and the Utah Department of Public Safety was using a helicopter to search the grounds.
There were no immediate evacuations of the depot or surrounding areas, he said.
The depot, about 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, stores chemical and nerve agents such as mustard gas. It has been destroying a stockpile of deadly chemical weapons since 1996.
Earlier this year, it finished destroying the largest stockpile of sarin nerve gas in the United States. It is scheduled to destroy 1,300 tons of VX, a more toxic but less volatile nerve agent, and 6,100 tons of mustard gas, a blister agent that can dissolve tissue on contact.
(China Daily September 6, 2002)
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