According to an indictment issued this week in Salt Lake City, a first officer on a Delta flight last August threatened to shoot the captain if they diverted the flight due to an onboard medical emergency.

The first officer was part of a program that deputizes flight crews and allows them to carry a gun onboard, so this was not an idle threat.

“We walk through the sequence of events laid out by the government and discuss if the Federal Flight Deck Officer (FFDO) program has outlived its usefulness.”