Instead of firing bullets, the Taser gun shoots out two metal barbs tethered to long wires. As soon as the barbs find their target, the wires transmit a 50,000-volt shock – enough to floor the most aggressive of individuals. The victim recovers when the current is turned off.

Taser International’s government affairs spokesman, Steve Tuttle, claims the company has proved “beyond a shadow of a doubt” that the guns are safe to use on planes. Mobile phones may occasionally cause problems because of the frequency of their signals, but the Taser is more like a weak lightning bolt, which the avionics are designed to cope with.

“We have fired the Taser into every piece of equipment aboard every platform that United Airlines has, trying to damage it – without success,” says Tuttle. He also reports that they managed to land an Airbus on autopilot while repeatedly discharging a stun gun in the cockpit.

New Scientist 17 January 2004