Jet Blue Touts Tough Cockpit Doors
By ALAN CLENDENNING
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK - The new sign on the cockpit doors of JetBlue Airways planes warns would-be hijackers: This door is plated and locked from the inside.
Bullets won't penetrate the new door, the airline says, and someone swinging an ax wouldn't be able to cut through it, either. The door is lined with a layer of Kevlar _ the material inside bulletproof vests.
After pilots close the door, they lock four new deadbolts made of titanium, a move aimed at preventing passengers from using their own weight to crash through.
Two of JetBlue's planes are now fitted with the $10,000 modified cockpit doors, and the rest of the company's 16 jets will have them soon, said David Neeleman, the airline's chief executive.
"What we didn't want is someone just running through the door," he said. "And they can't run through this door."
Other U.S. airlines are placing bars on the inside of their cockpit doors as temporary security measures _ including AirTran Airways, which announced Monday that it has finished installing stainless steel bars on the cockpit doors of its 717 jets.
Neeleman said JetBlue is the first U.S. carrier to use Kevlar and titanium deadbolts to reinforce cockpit doors, following the lead of Swissair, which has had similar doors on its planes for years.
The company also plans to install miniature cameras that watch over passengers; pilots would have small TV monitors to see what's going on in the passenger compartment.
Airlines have until the end of the year to tell Federal Aviation Administration officials what temporary measures they have taken to strengthen cockpit doors, FAA spokeswoman Alison Duquette said. The FAA is working with airlines and airplane manufacturers to come up with permanent security improvements.
JetBlue officials don't know whether their modifications will meet the final FAA design, but said the new doors will help pilots gain valuable time if problems emerge among passengers.
Even if hijackers were attacking passengers and trying to take over the plane, it "doesn't become a missile, and we've got time to get it on the ground," said Al Spain, JetBlue's vice president of operations.
JetBlue officials aren't worried about the possibility of both pilots having sudden health problems that leave them incapacitated, unable to fly and locked inside the cockpit with no way for crew members to enter.
"The chance of that happening is very small," said chief pilot Lanny McAndrew. "We thought about that, and the trade-off for it, we think, is well worth it."
With its hub at Kennedy International Airport in New York, JetBlue flies to points throughout the East Coast, California and Canada.
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