WASHINGTON--More than one in 10 of the nation's airline pilots are cleared to carry a handgun while flying, and the number will continue to grow, according to a Transportation Security Administration projection. The Federal Air Marshal Service, a TSA agency that runs the armed-pilots program, reports that 85,000 to 90,000 pilots and crewmembers flying domestic passengers and cargo planes are eligible  to carry a gun. That puts the number of armed pilots at about 9,500. The TSA projects the program to grow to 16.5% of eligible pilots by the year 2011. Aviation experts were surprised and alarmed that so many pilots are toting guns in the sky. "That's a big number compared to what I thought it would be," said aviation-security consultant Rich Roth, who said he had predicted there would be fewer than 1,000 armed pilots. The 5-year-old program trains pilots for one week and arms them with 40-caliber semiautomatic pistols. "That's a scary number," said Joseph Gutheinz, a former Transportation Department special agent and aviation attorney in Houston. "By allowing so many pilots the opportunity to fly armed, we're giving terrorists opportunity to identify somebody who has a gun and overpower him." Capt. Bob Hesselbein, head of security for the Air Line Pilots Association, said the number of armed pilots is "a tremendous deterrent " to hijackings. "The challenge of an organized terrorist team is to take control of the cabin, then the flight deck." Armed pilots have come under scrutiny  since March 22 when the gun of a US Airways pilot fired in the cockpit  of Flight 1536 as it approached Charlotte from Denver. No one was hurt, and the plane landed safely after the bullet pierced  the fuselage. The best title for this passage is "   _   ".
More than 10% of pilots allowed to fly armed Less than 10% of pilots allowed to fly armed More than 16.5% of pilots allowed to fly armed No chances for terrorists to hurt pilots