Air marshals
during those decades, they haven’t faced a real terrorism threat during an actual flight.
TSA Administrator David Pekoske called the program “a terrific organization” that performs a stressful job under difficult circumstances.
The service is an important layer of security, he said, that begins when a passenger buys a ticket, a database search against no-fly lists and checkpoint screening at airports. And the prospect that an air marshal could be on a specific flight is a deterrent to would-be attackers by itself.
“I think they do a very good Pekoske said.
Air marshals score an average 284 points out of a 300-point test with 60 shots fired, which they say is the highest average in law enforcement.
But instructors said decisions about when to shoot are just as important as where to aim. Air marshals train to decide in fractions of a second whether the target is a threat.
“I’m gauging the threat and I’m gauging the environment — what’s going on around me,” said Gary Decker, an air marshal firearms instructor. “I’m waiting to see what else might be happening.”
Growth and transformation
job,”
What is now called the Federal Air Marshal Service has transformed and grown significantly since it was created under President Kennedy after a string of hijackings in 1961.
In 1985, after the 17-day commandeering of TWA Flight 847 from Cairo to San Diego by hijackers who smuggled a pistol and two grenades through security, Congress increased the number of air marshals by the hundreds and expanded the program to international flights.
But the service had only 33 marshals on duty Sept. 11, 2001, when hijackers flew four planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania. The ranks were quickly expanded to an undisclosed number in the thousands.
Critics of the program highlight the costs and the lack of terrorist incidents.
Rep. John Duncan, R-Tenn., would like to abolish the program that he said had about 4,000 air marshals in 2009 and averaged 4.2 arrests a year in the first seven years. Air marshals were arrested 148 times from November 2002 to February 2012, according to a report by ProPublica based on TSA documents.
Money not well-spent?
The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general released an unclassified summary of a report in October 2017 that called the air marshals’ contribution to aviation security “questionable.”
Pekoske said he understood the difficulty putting a value on prevention. But he said changes in security before and during flights have reduced the need for air marshals.
“I think we’ve done a good job in increasing our security profile overall in flight,” Pekoske said. “I do think that the air marshals provide an important layer of security.”