5 Random Things About Air Marshals

There’s been renewed interest in the role of air marshals following the incident on Christmas Day in which a man allegedly attempted to blow up an airliner. Since 9/11, the roles and responsibilities of air marshals has expanded greatly, so I felt it appropriate to list a few things about the origins of the air marshals. For the purposes of this post, I am writing about the undercover officers that travel on commercial airliners (aka sky marshals), not the senior military officers in the British Royal Air Force.

1. The United States Federal Air Marshal Service got its start in 1963 at the behest of John F. Kennedy to combat the rash of hijackings taking place at the time. Due to the fact that they were only used on an as-needed basis on domestic flights, there were originally only 6 air marshals who just happened to be FAA employees.
2. Ronald Reagan greatly expanded the Air Marshal Service in 1985 to include support on international flights. Many foreign countries initially resisted the expansion of the air marshals due to their concerns about American law enforcement officers carrying firearms in their country.
3. Up until September 11, 2001, the air marshals were only used on high-risk flights. Thus, there were just 33 active air marshals on 9/11. In the aftermath, George W. Bush authorized a further expansion of the air marshal service in effort to put air marshals on almost all flights. However, it was revealed in 2008 that air marshals were only on roughly 1% of flights. The TSA insists that there are thousands, but since the records are classified due to national security concerns, it is unknown how many air marshals there actually are.
4. Because of the conditions they are placed in, federal air marshals are required to adhere to some of the world’s most stringent firearms accuracy measures. As such, air marshals have to be recertified quarterly on their firearms training.
5. El Al, the national airline of Israel, employs their own sky marshals who fly undercover on every international flight. Because of this and other security measures (including double doors to the cockpit and anti-missile countermeasures) El Al is considered the most secure airline in the World.

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