Armed Marshals Reported Placed on Commercial Jets

Armed air marshals have begun flying on a limited number of U.S. commercial airline flights as part of the government’s stepped-up effort to prevent terrorist hijackings, an industry source said today.

“There are some limited numbers that have been flying,” said the source, who demanded anonymity. “There are no great numbers out there yet.”

The armed marshals, assigned by the Federal Aviation Administration, have been sent on selected flights since the June 14 hijacking of TWA Flight 847, the source said.

John Layden, an FAA spokesman, refused to discuss the agency’s deployment of air marshals, saying only that new agents are being recruited as part of Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Hanford Dole’s program to tighten up airline security since the Beirut hijacking.

In the early 1970s, President Richard M. Nixon put armed guards on commercial airlines in response to a growing number of hijackings. That sky marshal program was phased out after the government began requiring the screening of baggage at all U.S. airports in January, 1973.

Since then, the FAA has kept a small staff of security agents who sometimes travel armed aboard commercial flights, Layden said. “We might have some intelligence (about a possible hijacking), or the airline might request it for a particular reason, but it was not routine,” Layden said.

In June, Dole asked Congress for authority to spend the necessary money to expand the air marshal program. Congress authorized FAA air marshals to carry arms and make arrests without being deputized as U.S. marshals, as had been previously required.