Mark Rosenker, a former acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said Honeywell is pursuing "a very interesting idea, that could be particularly relevant at very congested" airports.

WSJ: Honeywell Tests Autopilots for the Tarmac

"If one of them is scheduled to fly on Sunday, then as early as Sunday we might have a pilot with a gun in a cockpit, " said Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Heather Rosenker.

BBC: US airline pilots get guns

"The circumstances of the crash have raised several issues that go well beyond the widely discussed matter of airframe icing, " the NTSB's acting chairman, Mark Rosenker, said in a statement on the findings.

CNN: Source: Wrong move possibly made before Buffalo plane crash