Fergie's Tech Blog

CNN: U.S. Air Marshalls On Only 1% of U.S. Flights

Drew Griffin, Kathleen Johnston and Todd Schwarzschild write on CNN.com:

Of the 28,000 commercial airline flights that take to the skies on an average day in the United States, fewer than 1 percent are protected by on-board, armed federal air marshals, a nationwide CNN investigation has found.

That means a terrorist or other criminal bent on taking over an aircraft would be confronted by a trained air marshal on as few as 280 daily flights, according to more than a dozen federal air marshals and pilots interviewed by CNN.

The Transportation Security Administration flatly denied those reports.

But marshals across the country -- all of whom spoke with CNN on the condition they not be identified for fear of losing their jobs -- said the 5 percent figure quoted to them by their TSA bosses is not possible.

One marshal said that while security is certainly one reason the numbers are kept secret, he believes the agency simply doesn't want taxpayers to know the truth.

"I would be very embarrassed by [the numbers] if they were to get out," one air marshal said.

More here.

Note: Also, a story over on The Aviation Nation suggests that the TSA Censoring Posts on CNN Air Marshal Story. -ferg

posted by Fergie @ 3/25/2008 06:03:00 PM