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Showing posts with label Security. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Security. Show all posts
Friday, April 4, 2008
Friday, March 28, 2008
Air Marshals Go MIA on U.S. Flights
On Tuesday, Anderson Cooper 360 covered the issue of the declining number of armed guards devoted to securing the U.S. skies. The investigation was conducted by Drew Griffin, who filed this report:
From CNN:
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. Greg Alter, assistant special agent in charge of the federal air marshal program, said the 280 number "grossly understates coverage by an order of magnitude" and that the number is "four digits," but he would not elaborate.
In a post on its Web site responding to the CNN story, the TSA said it would not disclose the number of air marshals flying each day so as not to "tip our hand to terrorists." However, it said, "The actual number of flights that air marshals cover is thousands per day."
In educational interest, article(s) quoted from extensively.
Pilots and federal law enforcement officers interviewed by CNN said they hadn't seen air marshals on board their flights in months -- some saying they had not crossed paths with one in the past six months:
Air marshals who spoke with CNN anonymously in order to protect their jobs are especially troubled by the lack of coverage on flights in and out of Washington and New York, the two cities targeted by the 9/11 hijackers. Marshals, pilots and other law enforcement officials told CNN these flights are protected by far fewer air marshals than in the past. ...
Air marshals told CNN that while the TSA tells the public it cannot divulge numbers because they are classified, the agency tells its own agents that at least 5 percent of all flights are covered. 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. "The American public would be shocked. ... I think the average person understands there's no physical way to protect every single flight everywhere," the air marshal said. "But it's such a small percentage. It's just very aggravating for us."
Sources inside the air marshal field offices told CNN the program has been unable to stem the losses of trained air marshals since the program's numbers peaked in 2003 -- and many of those who have left have not been replaced.
CNN was told that staffing in Dallas, Texas, for instance, is down 44 percent from its high, while Seattle, Washington, has 40 percent fewer agents. Las Vegas, Nevada, which had as many as 245 air marshals, this past February had only 47. The Transportation Security Administration is advertising for applicants to fill 50 air marshal positions.
A few stats from the TSA:
On September 11, 2001, the Air Marshal Program consisted of less than fifty armed marshals who, by statute, flew only on international flights flown by U.S. air carriers. The tragic events which unfolded that day demonstrated the need for an expanded law enforcement presence on board American carriers on both foreign and domestic flights.
As a result of the attacks, President George W. Bush ordered the rapid expansion of the Federal Air Marshal Service. Over 200,000 applications were initially received, from which several thousand qualified Federal Air Marshals were selected. Those who were hired came from a diverse background of experience including other federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies and the military.
Today, Federal Air Marshals serve as the primary law enforcement entity within the Transportation Security Administration and are deployed on flights around the world and in the United States. While their primary mission of protecting air passengers and crew has not changed much over the years, Federal Air Marshals have an ever expanding role in homeland security and work closely with other law enforcement agencies to accomplish their mission.
Currently, air marshals staff several positions at different organizations such as the National Counterterrorism Center, the National Targeting Center, and on the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces. In addition, they are also distributed among other law enforcement and homeland security liaison assignments during times of heightened alert or special national events.
The men and women who make up the Federal Air Marshal Service are dedicated, well trained law enforcement professionals, each equipped with the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary keep our aviation system safe and secure.
On average, a Federal Air Marshal:
* Flies 181 days per year
* Flies 15 days per month
* Spends 900 hours in an aircraft per year
* Spends five hours in an aircraft per day
A few more details via the CNN report:
David Mackett, president of the Airline Pilots Security Alliance and a pilot himself, said that, based on conversations with other pilots and marshals, he believes the TSA is overstating the number of flights that are protected by a federal marshal.
In his e-mail to CNN, Alter wrote, "In 2007, the Federal Air Marshal Service attrition rate was approximately 6.5 percent, the same approximate average it has been for almost the entire period since the agency's expansion after September 11, 2001." ...
As it turns out, the words "coverage" or "covered" have special meaning when applied to the air marshal service. In his e-mail to CNN, TSA's Alter said, "The Federal Air Marshal Service employs an intelligence driven and risk based approach to covering flights." ...Alter said he uses the term "covered" to mean that a federal marshal is on board.
But air marshals and pilots CNN spoke with say that's not exactly the case. These sources say 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. ...
The firearms training program for pilots is budgeted at $25 million. And while it is popular among airline pilots, many complain that they have to spend as much as $3,000 of their own money for lodging and meals when they take the course. By comparison, the federal air marshal budget this year is $720 million. But air marshals who spoke with CNN question where the money is going when their numbers are dwindling and fewer than 1 percent of flights are covered on any given day.
"I'm afraid in the past, the only things that have really worked has been to call out the media and say we need people to call their congressman, call their senators and tell them they want better protection, and hopefully the changes will trickle down to us," one marshal said.
If you feel strongly about this issue, please contact your representatives and demand attention to this important matter. Ironically, only days before the CNN report, a US Airways pilot's gun discharged in the cockpit on descent in preparation for landing.
Jefferson George's report in the Charlotte Observer:
The US Airways captain whose gun discharged in the cockpit of a Charlotte-bound flight Saturday is a former Air Force pilot who lives in Pittsburgh. The pilot, James Langenhahn, declined to discuss the shooting Thursday night. "As much as I'd like to talk about it," he told the Observer, "I can't right now."
His name was released, apparently inadvertently, after the Observer questioned the government's concealment of facts on a police report [pdf] of the incident. The in-flight shooting was the first such incident since pilots began carrying guns after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Langenhahn, 55, is part of the Federal Flight Deck Officer program run by the Transportation Security Administration. He was stowing the 13-shot, .40-caliber pistol when it discharged -- piercing the cockpit wall and fuselage -- while the plane was preparing to land in Charlotte late Saturday morning, according to the report. Other details released Thursday also indicate that the gun's holster is being investigated in the shooting. Some pilots have criticized the locking holster system for the Heckler & Koch USP pistol as inappropriate for the program that arms pilots. ...
The bullet -- fired at about 11:20 a.m. Saturday -- struck the left side of the cockpit wall and exited the fuselage below a window. The plane, an Airbus A319 en route from Denver, was at an altitude of 8,000 feet and about eight minutes from Charlotte/Douglas International Airport, according to the police report. Along with the captain and first officer, the jet carried three flight attendants and 124 passengers -- none of whom reported hearing the gunshot. ...
In December, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review newspaper reported that US Airways pilot Jim Langenhahn organized a barbershop-singing tribute to a World War II veteran. The event was partly in memory of his own father, a parachute rigger in the South Pacific. The article identified Langenhahn as a former Air Force pilot.
In 1999, Langenhahn wrote a letter to the editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette after a deadly American Airlines crash in Arkansas. He urged the FAA to overhaul its rules governing work and rest period for pilots, which he said would make flying safer.
Local WCNC-Charlotte, N.C., broadcast on the incident:
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Northern Star Column on 9/11 Reverberations
As a nontraditional student attending NIU as a journalism major, I began writing for the Northern Star last year. My first column ran on September 21, 2007 and reflected on the still-raw residual fear some have held onto in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
The inspiration for the piece was an incident that had taken place only weeks earlier on board an American Airlines flight taxing out to the runway for take-off. A woman traveling with her children refused to fly with a group of Middle-Eastern men and demanded the plane be returned to the gate so that she could remove herself and her children from what she felt was a dangerous situation.
It created quite a stir. Here's a snippet:
Seven Middle Eastern men gather in the departure lounge of a recent American Airlines flight bound for Chicago.
It’s late in San Diego, nearing the 11 p.m. departure time for Flight 590 and passengers are anxious to get going. A 35-year-old homemaker traveling with her two children observes the dark-skinned men. They’re talking to one another – not in English – and it makes her uneasy. ...
In 1998, author Gavin de Becker published a best-seller called “The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals that Protect us from Violence.” Written before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the book directed people to tap into their sixth sense for protection against threats of violence.
de Becker claims that our “personal solution to violence” will come from within us. If we learn to follow our gut instincts, or “brilliant internal guardian,” then we can keep our loved ones and ourselves safe and free from harm.
But what happens when members of society become too fearful? Can we trust our intuition if we live in a culture of pervasive fear?
Please read the rest.
For many Americans, the reverberations of 9/11 are still felt six-plus years beyond that dark day. This will hardly be the last such encounter, I'm afraid.
[In previous years, I've shared my experiences and feelings of 9/11 online. In 2004, I described the day as it unraveled for me in my little corner of the world...and many, many others -- some for the first time -- shared theirs in return. In a 2005-photo essay you can return with me to the site of the still-smoldering Ground Zero, three weeks after the attacks, when me and my crew mates journeyed to pay our respects to those lost.]
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