Secure Planes Still Goal, Not Reality

Feb. 7 -- In the days following Sept. 11, President Bush vowed to make airline travel safer and planes more secure. But more than four months later, much of the effort is still on the drawing board.

"For the sake of every passenger, every crew member and every pilot, we are going to make our airline security stronger and more reliable," Bush declared at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on Sept. 27.

The Federal Aviation Administration, for instance, has ordered airlines to install new cockpit doors strong enough to withstand gunfire, grenades and unruly passengers. The problem is the FAA issued standards for the new doors only last month, and the deadline for installing them is not until April 2003.

"Having the deadline a year away doesn't give me any comfort because what can happen between then and now?" said American Airlines Capt. Dennis Breslin. "And I don't think they're going to make that progress quickly enough to make the deadline anyway."

Until then, most airlines have installed temporary reinforcements, including locks inside cockpits and security bars, in their more than 6,000 aircraft. That's what was on board United Airlines Flight 855 when a passenger tried to ram his way onto the cockpit today.

The unruly passenger was able to get part way into the cockpit only because of a small, breakaway panel at the bottom of the door, required by the government in case of emergency. See story.

"The system worked," says Capt. Herb Hunter, a United Airlines pilot. "He tried to ram his shoulder through the door three times and the bar held, so it did keep him out."

Never Enough Marshals

Bush also called for beefing up the federal air marshal program with increased hiring and training. But sources tell ABCNEWS a federal air marshal was not on United 855.

Most flights now do not have a marshal. And a former FAA security chief said there will never be enough marshals to cover every plane.

"It's unrealistic to put an air marshal team on every one of our 30,000 flights per day, excessively expensive in many respects," said Billie H. Vincent, president of Aerospace Services International Inc., an aviation security firm.