I just heard a news report on the radio about an incident that happened this morning. A passenger on a United Airlines Flight 855 tried to break into the cockpit on a flight to Beunos Aires (sp). He made it part of the way into the cockpit only to be met by the copilot armed with the plane's crash axe. The copilot hit the man in the head with the axe and that pretty well ended the incident. Somehow, the man survived but he was arrested after the plane landed safely.

I first heard that airline crews were moving the crash axe to make it more accessible right after September 11th. After the hijackings that day, no airline crew is going to peacefully submit to someone breaking into the cockpit. Since FAA regulations don't allow the crews to be armed, this is a good workaround. Only one criticism - it sounds to me that this copilot needs to work on his swing. He obviously didn't hit the man hard enough.