"Air marshals thrust into spotlight"

Thursday, December 8, 2005

Air marshals thrust into spotlight 
By Thomas Frank, Mimi Hall and Alan Levin
USA TODAY


They travel in plainclothes and carry some of the most lethal bullets made.
 
When they work, it's always in teams - at least two, sometimes more. They
board an airplane before children and the elderly, survey the cabin and
watch passengers as they walk toward their seats.

And then they sit, reading newspapers and taking in an occasional in-flight
movie.
 
The quiet and little-known life of U.S. air marshals sprang suddenly into
view Wednesday when marshals fatally shot Rigoberto Alpizar, an American
Airlines passenger at Miami International Airport. The Federal Air Marshals
Service said Alpizar had claimed to have a bomb on a jet before running from
the aircraft and up a jetway. The Homeland Security Department said the
shooting was the first by an air marshal. (Related story: Wife says husband
was mentally ill)

Miami-Dade police are conducting a homicide investigation into the shooting,
said James Bauer, the agent in charge of the air marshals' Miami office. But
the air marshals' actions were defended by officials who noted that marshals
are trained to take all potential threats seriously - and to respond to bomb
threats with lethal force.

"The system worked exactly as designed," said Rep. John Mica, R-Fla.,
chairman of the House aviation subcommittee. "Right now we are on edge about
anyone having a bomb."

"This is the perfect scenario of why we're there," said an air marshal who
spoke to USA TODAY. He asked not to be named because the secretive Air
Marshals Service does not allow most of its employees to speak to the news
media. "If somebody yelled they had a bomb and reached for it, you shoot
them - no ifs, ands or buts. That's what you're there to do."

Underlined bomb worries 

The incident came just days after the Transportation Security Administration
said airport screeners would turn more attention toward stopping passengers
from carrying bombs on airplanes. TSA Chief Kip Hawley said in a speech in
October that "the terrorist threat is shifting to explosives."

Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Doyle said Alpizar had claimed
to have a bomb and ran off the American Airlines plane after air marshals
confronted him. When air marshals ordered Alpizar to get to the ground, he
reached into his backpack and was shot, Doyle said. Investigators found no
bomb in Alpizar's backpack, Doyle said.

Air marshals have been flying covertly on airplanes since several hijackings
dating back to the late 1960s. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, their
presence increased dramatically from about 50 to "thousands," according to
the U.S. Government Accountability Office. 

To meet a July 2002 deadline for massive expansion, the Air Marshals Service
cut training from 14 to five weeks for candidates with no law enforcement
experience, the GAO said. The service also dropped an advanced marksmanship
test.

The exact number of air marshals is classified, along with many of their
duties.

Air marshals say their agents are now undergoing some of the most exacting
firearms training in law enforcement.

"They have the highest standards of any federal law-enforcement agency,"
Doyle said. Firearms tests are held every three months, Doyle said. The test
score needed to pass is the highest of any federal agency.

"We're told to shoot to stop" and to "fire at the largest part of your
body," said another air marshal who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We aim
toward the chest. You might put one or more (bullets) in the head to
incapacitate the nervous system."

Air marshals carry automatic .357 SIG Sauer pistols with a 12-round
cartridge. The bullets are hollow-point and expand on entering a body. "It's
one of the most high-powered rounds you can put in a weapon," the second air
marshal said. 

In training, air marshals use live bullets in mock cabins to shoot
terrorists on moving paper targets. Undercover agents are trained to take
down potential terrorists swiftly. 

"If you wait for someone to point a weapon before discharging your weapon,
chances are you're going to get hit," said John Adler, executive vice
president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, which
represents 1,300 air marshals. Had the air marshals in Miami waited to see
what Alpizar pulled out of his backpack, "they would have placed themselves
and everyone else in imminent harm," he said.

Guns on flights controversial 

The notion of armed agents in the air has caused controversy abroad. 

In 2003, the British Airline Pilots Association threatened to strike over a
government decision to put armed air marshals on flights. French pilots also
expressed alarm at their government's decision to put armed police on some
international flights. In both cases, pilots warned that guns should not be
allowed on planes because terrorists could gain control of them and take
over the aircraft.

In the USA after 9/11, thousands of airlines pilots have been certified to
carry guns. Mica, the aviation subcommittee chairman, said armed pilots now
outnumber air marshals. "We've got a small army out there ready to protect
and defend the flying public," he said.

Air marshals have also faced problems. The agency has been moved several
times since 9/11, from the Federal Aviation Administration to the TSA to the
Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The agency moved back to the
TSA in October.

In 2004, the Homeland Security Department's inspector general issued a
scathing report that cited air marshals sleeping on the job, testing
positive for alcohol or drugs, losing weapons and falsifying reports.

Some air marshals also clashed with management over what they said was a
dress code - jackets and ties -that made them easy to spot. Adler of the
officers association said the policy was changed.

AIRLINE INCIDENTS:   
 
Feb. 7, 2002: A Uruguayan banker - who later said he had become psychotic -
crashed through a United Airlines cockpit door on the way from Miami to
Argentina. The man wedged his body partway through the door before a
co-pilot hit him in the head with the blunt side of an ax. Flight attendants
and passengers yanked him out of the cockpit.

Oct. 8, 2001: Less than a month after the 9/11 attacks, a man aboard an
American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Chicago screamed that the
pilots were going to crash into the Sears Tower in Chicago. He broke into
the cockpit, where a co-pilot grabbed him by the neck and wrestled him to
the floor. A nurse on board injected him with a sedative after he continued
to fight crewmembers.

Dec. 29, 2000: A passenger on a British Airways flight from London to Kenya
broke into the cockpit and sent the jet into a series of violent maneuvers.
The man was restrained and the flight landed safely. One crewmember broke an
ankle.
 
Aug. 11, 2000: A man died aboard a Southwest Airlines flight from Las Vegas
to Salt Lake City after being subdued by passengers. Jonathan Burton, 19,
had kicked a hole in the cockpit door and became violent after passengers
and crewmembers tried to subdue him. An autopsy showed he had suffocated. No
charges were filed.

March 16, 2000: A man who was suffering from a rare brain infection pulled
out a pocketknife and broke into the cockpit during an Alaska Airlines
flight from Mexico to San Francisco. The man briefly grabbed some of the
jet's controls before he was subdued by a co-pilot wielding an ax and
passengers and crewmembers.

July 23, 1999: A Japanese hijacker with a knife barged into an the cockpit
of an All Nippon Airways jet that had just left Tokyo, ejected the co-pilot
and then repeatedly stabbed the pilot during a struggle. The jet landed
safely back in Tokyo, but the pilot died.


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