>>Are the pilots armed? I think, they should be. Also there should be a secure metal door between pilot cabin and passenger salon with a lock.
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>Pilots are not armed as they usually do not need to be. Arming any pilot or guard on a plane with a gun is the last thing we need. All it takes is one bullet to pierce the outer shell and you get instant decompression of the cabin and possible disaster just from that. The solution is to make the cockpit secure with a steal or other type of reinforced door that can not be battered down by conventional means. You can not make the door a separate entrance from the cabin because pilots do need access to on board facilities like restrooms.

As a mechanical engineer working for AIR-CANADA on the 'Boeing 757', here's what my brother told me:

"The doors that lead to the cockpit are very safe. Usually bulletproof and locked from the inside. From what I've heard, the pilots opened the cockpit door because the terrorists were slowly and painfully killing their staff just outside the door. It probably was just too hard for them to ear what was going on and not do a thing about it."

As you can see, the solution could be an outside door and no contact from the inside of the plane with the cockpit but that could cause some other problems because the staff sometime needs to talk directely with the pilot.

Stephane.