Airlines put steel bars on cockpit doors

American and United, the two biggest US airlines, are to begin installing steel bars on the cockpit doors of all their planes.

American and United airlines, the two biggest US airlines, are to begin installing steel bars on the cockpit doors of all their planes.

Other airlines are set to do the same to protect pilots and calm nervous passengers.

United spokesman Joe Hopkins said the airline is already talking with suppliers and the bars should be on doors within a matter of weeks.

"We've got to do what we've got to do right now," said Herb Hunter, a United pilot and spokesman for the airline's branch of the Air Line Pilots Association. "It's a wonderful first step."

President George W Bush has recommended the improvements. A Transportation Department task force said airlines should begin installing stronger cockpit doors within 30 days.

American, the largest US airline, said it has installed prototypes of the devices on an MD-80 and a Boeing 757, and will put them on all other aircraft types flown by American and TWA within 30 days.

The devices are designed to "immediately secure the cockpits while the FAA explores ways to further enhance cockpit security," the airline said.

Other airlines, including Continental and Alaska, are prepared to begin installing the crossbar locking devices on their cockpit doors but are awaiting a more formal directive from the Federal Aviation Administration.

The steel bars are designed to prevent forced entry into a plane's cockpit, something that may have happened September 11 on the four hijacked airliners that were taken over by terrorists.

Aircraft maker Boeing has expressed reservations about retrofitting planes with locking devices. The bars could prevent evacuation of the cockpit in an emergency, some airline industry observers say, and flight attendants have expressed concern about not being able to get into cockpits if pilots became incapacitated.