I remembered my friend Al Gionni's comment on the firearms standard: a monkey could pass the firearms qualification for the Federal
Air Marshal Service.
The anonymous texter is on the plane and knows who Bill is, though
air marshals travel undercover.
In his illustrious career spanning 35 years so far,
Air Marshal Gill has had the distinction of commanding various frontline bases.
"With
Air Marshal, we're pleased to offer high-grade intrusion detection and prevention without the cost and complexity of traditional solutions."
ACP Bhisham Singh of the Delhi Police special cell, which was investigating the case, said he was not aware of the involvement of the US
air marshal.
Because the number of
air marshals is less than the number of daily flights, FAMS's operational approach is to assign
air marshals to selected flights it deems high risk--such as the nonstop, long-distance flights targeted on September 11, 2001.
Secret Service,
Air Marshals, pilots and other U.S.
The training programme was part of an aviation security agreement between the two countries that will also allow US
air marshals to work undercover on flights operated by US carriers into China and vice versa.
There are potentially serious consequences to being enrolled on a federal "watch list." Thus it is, to say the least, unsettling to know that "watch lists" compiled by the federal
air marshals service are built on the quota system--meaning that the names of thousands of innocent U.S.
Northwest Airlines DC-10-30 en route from Minneapolis to Mumbai via Amsterdam yesterday abruptly returned to Schiphol Airport shortly after departure, at which point 12 passengers were arrested by US
air marshals for "suspicious" behavior.
Stranger still, says Andrew Thomas, an aviation security expert at the University of Akron, "If the
air marshals were properly trained, and could recognize threats, and the threat was so great, why didn't they shoot him on the plane" rather than letting Alpizar run through the aisle and on to the jetway, supposedly with a bomb in his bag.
A PASSENGER who claimed to have a bomb in a carry-on bag was shot and killed by a federal
air marshal yesterday on a jetway to an American Airlines plane that had arrived in Miami from Colombia, officials said.
