SECURITY IN THE SKIES
Air marshals have long been ‘the last line of defense’ against terrorism on airliners. Now some question the need for them.
ATLANTIC CITY – The scenario: As a flight attendant asks passengers what they’d like to drink, a man sitting beside a window tries to light an explosive in his shoe.
When the flight attendant challenges him, another man sitting on the aisle leaps to his feet, yelling “get back” and threatening passengers with a knife.
A federal air marshal draws his pistol and shoots both men. Threat over.
The training exercise illustrates the protection that air marshals — who fly armed and undercover — could provide in thwarting terrorists in the skies.
“We are the last line of defense on board an aircraft,” Mike LaFrance, assistant supervisory air marshal in charge of the program’s training center near the Atlantic City airport, told USA TODAY. “If everything else fails, the air marshal is there to take down anything that may happen.”
But now some lawmakers and critics in watchdog agencies are ask-
“At 37,000 feet, we can’t call for backup. We’re in such a confined space, we can’t make mistakes.”
Gary Decker Air marshal firearms instructor
ing: Is the program that peaked at nearly $1 billion a year — a program that never has caught a single terrorist on board a plane — really needed?
The program has existed under a variety of names and agencies for 57 years, and it expanded significantly after the 9/11 hijackings. But air marshals can’t be on every plane, and 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 job,” Pekoske said. “I’m very much comforted by the fact that they are on some flights — not all, based on the size — to provide that additional layer of security should the need arise.”
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, and then whether to aim for the head of a bomber or the body of a gunman.
“I’m gauging the threat and I’m gauging the environment — what’s going on around me before I get out of that seat,” said Gary Decker, an air marshal firearms instructor. “Because there may be somebody behind me. There may be somebody to the right. I’m waiting to see what else might be happening.”
Growth and transformation
What is now called the Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) has transformed and grown significantly since it was created under President Kennedy after a string of hijackings in 1961.
The first 18 Federal Aviation Administration safety inspectors who were deputized to thwart hijackers graduated in 1962.
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 in the ebb and flow of funding, 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. They argue that more air marshals are arrested than terrorists.
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. Duncan slams the program as “the most needless, useless agency.”
Air marshals themselves were arrested 148 times from November 2002 to February 2012, according to a report by ProPublica based on TSA documents.
Air marshals also were charged with more than 5,000 cases of misconduct during that period, including 1,200 cases of lost equipment and 950 missed flights, the report said.
Pekoske said he is confident there aren’t systemic problems with discipline.
“I think those problems are in the past for TSA,” Pekoske said. “It’s something that I’ve placed a good amount of emphasis on myself, to make sure that we have handled the problems that have occurred in the past and have a good path forward.”
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.”
“We also identified a part of FAMS operations where, if discontinued, funds could be put to better use,” it said.
The service peaked with a $966 million budget in 2012, according to the Government Accountability Office. It received
$779 million in the latest spending bill approved in March.
A former Coast Guard vice commandant, 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, so spending has shifted.
Airlines hardened cockpit doors after
9/11 to prevent terrorists from getting to pilots. Some pilots volunteer to be trained to carry guns during flights under the Federal Flight Deck Officer program.
“From my perspective, 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.”