Admiral James M. Loy, administrator of the federal transportation security adminstration

Pilots would be allowed to carry weapons in cockpits and airports would get a year's reprieve from screening all air travelers' baggage under the homeland security bill nearing a final vote in Congress.

The compromise passed the House on Wednesday as airport managers meeting in Salt Lake City expressed concern that many airports would not meet the Dec. 31 deadline to finish the construction needed to install bomb-detection machines. The Senate is expected to pass it next week.

Nonetheless, in a speech Wednesday to the managers, Transportation Security Administration chief James Loy said he was against an across-the-board extension.

"We're under threat from terrorists who have made it clear that they will stop at nothing to kill Americans," he said. "I don't and I won't support a wholesale delay in the December 31 deadline."

It is said airports had two ways to meet the deadline if they did not have the proper equipment installed. They could search all baggage by hand or with bomb-sniffing dogs or require passengers to be matched with their luggage on connecting flights.

Bags cannot be loaded on a plane now unless the passenger also boards, but they can be loaded onto a connecting flight without being matched to a passenger. Matching all bags would not deter suicidal terrorists, though.

Meanwhile, many pilots welcomed the requirement that a training program for carrying weapons in the cockpit would begin within three months of the bill's passage. Any pilot of a commercial passenger plane could sign up for the training. After completing it, the pilot would be allowed to take a gun into the cockpit.

"We are looking for a last line of defense and that defense has to be lethal to counter lethal intent," said Gregg Overman, spokesman for the Allied Pilots Union representing 13,500 American Airlines pilots.

(Agencies)