From the ABC Special report today regarding President Obama's take on the Christmas Day attempted bombing of Northwest flight 253 came this little tidbit:
According to the reporter, several air marshals, the ones who ride on the planes and are supposed to protect us against terrorist attacks, have come to the media and reported that air marshals were pulled out off the overseas flights and put on domestic flights. Like a flight that went from Chicago to Boise.
So, some mid level bureaucrat decided that there was more of a risk of a flight to Boise than a flight originating from Nigeria and going on to Detroit.
My guess is that there was an air marshal that lived in Boise and the air marshal bureaucrat wanted the marshal to get home for Christmas Day to be with their family instead of looking out for the country's security. Brilliant.
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Your guess is, like most uneducated and inexperienced ones, wrong. For instance, I went to Europe on that Monday, got back to the states that Wednesday (20 hours on the ground in Europe) and was back in the air on Thursday for an overnight on christmas eve, spending another night away from home. Most FAMs I work with had similar schedules. The real truth is there's no enough of us to cover a large percentage of the 40000 some odd flights in the US every day. The human body can only take so much. So feel free to join the program, strap on a gun and get an educated perspective.
ReplyDeleteNo one doubts that there are not enough air marshals and those who are on the job, put in long hours. And it is not a glamours job as some people may think.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, there should be some common sense. A flight that started in Nigeria should have a marshal on board as opposed to a flight from Chicago to Boise. It's common sense.
Just like the TSA where they check out old ladies and let young middle eastern go through- in other words no profiling.
There needs to be common sense- use profiling when neccessary, same with airline flights- profile them.
And thanks for your service.
Except that FAMs can't fly into or out if Nigeria. It's that pesky problem of the host country being a soverign nation and being able to decide what foreign LEOs, if any, come into their country. Also that no FAM team can operationally do a mission from there to Amsterdam to the US. They couldn't be operationally effective that long.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the input, you have taught me something.
ReplyDeleteAnd then it does present a problem about U.S. flight orginating in somewhat hostile areas.
Correct. Where the system broke down here was letting a man buy a cash, one way ticket with no luggage and not checking him out more. I'm not sure of the security screening in the Netherlands as I've never been there either on a mission or personally, but that should have been a huge red flag. Guy should have glowed in the dark.
ReplyDeleteAlso please let me say that a mission to Europe is an ass kicker. A 10 hour flight (plus Customs/Immigration time), go to bed, wake up then head back is hell on the body. And to then get on a flight the next day? No airline crews in the US are doing this. They have FAA federally mandated maximum flight times as well as crew rest minimums. FAMs do not. They can, and do, fly us as much as they want. To the point that when a real attack does come, like this one, we don't have much left in the tank to handle the increased load such an attack always necessitates. I'm not wanting a pity party, just trying to set the record straight, as it were. There were plenty of FAMs flying on Christmas Day. Most of us didn't get it off. In seven years I've had it off twice. As to why there were no FAMs on the Amsterdam flight, I can't speak to that. What I can speak to is that the reason was not an overriding concern on the part of our management to get us home on Christmas.