Federal Air Marshals MIA

Feds made big deal of air marshal program that has atrophied -- and pilot's gun goes off in flight

The US instituted a federal air marshal program in the 1970s after a spate of hijackings and said it was beefing it up after 9/11, when it made a big deal of hiring more agents who would be on board many commercial flights to protect the flying public. Now, CNN reports that only about 1 percent of daily flights have an armed federal marshal on board. The Air Marshal Service claims it is closer to 5 percent, but admits that attrition has impacted the service. The Transportation Security Agency, une which the Air Marshal Service operates, won't give actual numbers or percentages, on the gronds of those being "classified" information. Still, it is worth reading the entire CNN report just to learn how the feds are tap dancing, semantically, around the the issue. According to the CNN report, "the marshal service considers a flight 'covered' even if a marshal is not on board -- as long as a law enforcement officer or pilot in possession of a firearm is on board, even if that person is flying for personal reasons. The 'covered' designation includes pilots armed in the cockpit."

On Saturday, such cockpit coverage literally backfired. An unnamed pilot's firearm on US Airways' flight #1536 between Denver and Charlotte discharged in flight while the plane was on approach to Charlotte. News reports indicated that none of the 124 or five crew members were in danger, and no one was hurt. The circumstances were not detailed. The Transportation Security Administration is reportedly investigating how the gun discharged and where the bullet hit. How reassuring!

Frankly, I don't know whether any air marshal ever deterred any incident, or whether it is just another example of government ineptitude masquerading as protecting the traveling public.