Trivia: At the end of the movie, the plane is crashing into the front of a casino. This building is actually The Sands hotel. The scene was done a few weeks/months before the hotel was demolished, this way the damages to the hotels entrance as the plane was launched into it didn't matter.
Trivia: Dave Chappelle ad-libbed most of his lines.
Trivia: The original plan for the ending of the movie was to crash the plane into the White House.
Trivia: The scenes of Garland Greene and the little girl were added to give him more screen time. They filmed them after principal photography was finished.
Trivia: John Cusack hates this film so much, he refuses to talk about it in interviews.
Answer: If there was ever an emergency landing the weapons would be needed with the prisoners as they most likely will have to exit the plane at some point. There doesn't seem to be any information around that says that every prisoner transport plane would have the same amount of weapons or in the same spot but it seems likely most would have backup weapons for situations like that.
Lummie ★