No name

The FAA is taking applications for the job of air marshall. According to its web site, pay tops out at $80,000 (although entry level is in the $35,000 range). Air marshalls have to complete a weapons course and an air marshalling course, qualify for top security clearance, and commit to be away from home weeks at a time. Strict physical fitness standards apply, and applicants must be under 37 years of age. Law enforcement experience is a plus.

Does this sound like a good job? It might be nice to make a living just sitting on airplanes, reading and writing the Great American Novel on a laptop. Or would it just be horribly boring. I wonder if laid-off airline employees ought to be encouraged to apply for these jobs.

sss

Here's a random musing....why can't FBI agents take on this responsibility, at least for a while? Agents must have bachelor's degrees, they have already been trained in weapons and investigations, and they are career, professional law enforcement people. Why not make every agent commit, say, two or three weeks out of the year to serve as an air marshal?

What do others think?

Debra

How about this? Would some of the laid-off pilots be interested? They would only need training in firearms, they know these planes inside and out, and they could land it if need be. Just a temporary solution until more marshalls can be hired and trained, and travel picks up enough for the pilots to get back to the cockpit.

No Name

One delay with using FBI agents is that they would have to complete the air-marshall course. They learn about how planes fly, which parts of the aircraft are vulnerable, etc. I have now idea how long this would take.

Pilots would have even more to learn -- weapons training, hand-to-hand combat, legal training, etc.

The FAA did put out the call for federal law enforcement people who want to switch over (border patrol, prisons, FBI, DEA, Bureau of Tobacco and Firearms).

Emanno

Air Marshalls need to pay attention to their surroundings at all time instead of trying to write the "great American novel." I can't believe how dense some of you really are...

Come On!

I hardly think an air marshall has to sit bolt upright in his seat the whole time, twiddling his thumbs. He's supposed to be undercover. He ought to be able to do anything a regular passenger can do, except sleep.

z

But he can pretend to sleep

ilisa

My husband and I talked about this. He is a federal law enforcement officer. The FAA would take him at his current salary plus 25%. However, it would require him to be away from home at least 2 weeks at a time. He is away enough as it is so we decided we didn't want to go that route. Money just isn't that important.

Cindy

Ilisa,

Would it be 2 weeks on/2 weeks off, or would they really expect you to be on the road pretty much all the time? 2 on and 2 off might not be bad.

I'd imagine that law enforcement people would find air marshall to be boring because you could go your whole career and not see any "action." But that's just a guess.

Ashleigh

I think a lot of these jobs will go to FBI employees. I know a few DEA agents have already been asked to do this.

Beth

My husband is Secret Service and said that ALL federal agents from FBI right down to border Patrol and Health and Human Services (investigate medicare fraud) have ALL been offered the same incentive package to swith over and become air marshals at a much higher rate of pay. Apparently many who want to transfer to another city but can't at their present job are becoming sky marshals as they are needed everywhere and you can pretty much pick where you want to move right now. It makes much more sense since these people already have most of the training having gone through the FLETC Academy already (Federal Law Enforcement Training Center).

L

May I pray, just for a moment, that the US will not rush back to complacency ... and if it does, I can suggest an early indictaor. The air marshall initiative will be shunted off to GSA, and we'll see a bevy of private security guards lounging up in first class making the most of their pick of the decent magazines. Today's Post offers fairly scarey stuff about said agency's response on Federal building security following Oklahoma City. It makes the DC taxi inspection program look like this year's paradigm of efficiency and integrity. Look, if W. isn't enthusiastic about guns in the cockpits, how about arming the bureaucrats ... security in Federal lobbies seems roughly akin to cockpit doors. The Post also offers insight into cockpit door strength ... akin to what one finds for plane lavatories. And here I always though my privacy was inviolate when I was taking a pee. Ciao

Cindy

As long as we're identifying signs of complacency . . .

Bush is not proposing air marshall coverage for 100% of flights. I think that any plane that can be used as a missile should have at least one air marshall, and that's every plane. Statistically, if we had 75% air marshall coverage on Sept. 11, we still would have lost a plane, and maybe even a skyscraper full of people.

As soon as we think 75% is OK, then we'll get 70% as budgets shrink, then 65%, until we're right back to the tiny numbers we have now. If we already say flights can't take off with the requisite number of FAs, then we can insist on 100% air marshall coverage, too.

xxx

I can't help thinking that this sort of job, as it is described now, just isn't going to attract and retain the most qualified people. It sounds insanely boring for one thing, and requires people who basically either have no home life or are totally willing to sacrifice the one they do have in order to travel all the time. Is that the kind of person who will make you feel safe on board a plane? Someone with no personal life, a boring job and an itchy trigger finger?

I think the idea presented about federal agents committing a few weeks each year may have merit. It would be like the military reserves -- you still have your full time job and are home with your family, but for one or two weeks a year, you act as a air marshal, with increased compensation of course.

Why do I have the feeling that we're going to wind up with Rent-A-Cops in the air anyway?

ilisa

Cindy, the way my husband was talking, it sounded like it would be constant travel. If it were 2 weeks on/2 weeks off, we could handle it, but I don't think it's that simple.

xxx

Great, just what we need, someone with a gun on the flight--goes through potential hijacker (if he/she hits him at all) & hits the plane or another passenger. This idea does not give me comfort.