More Sky Marshals Riding Airliners to Thwart Hijackings
Armed air marshals are returning to the skies in growing numbers as part of a Reagan Administration effort to tighten airline security after the hijacking of TWA Flight 847 in the Middle East, industry executives said Thursday.
Federal Aviation Administration security agents who are occasionally assigned to ride commercial airlines “have stepped up their activity” since the June 14 hijacking, John Mazor, a spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Assn., said.
Government sky marshals were first deployed by President Richard M. Nixon in the early 1970s after a wave of hijackings. That program was phased out in 1973, when the government began requiring baggage searches for weapons at all U.S. airports.
FAA spokesman John Leyden said that it was agency policy not to discuss the deployment of air marshals. But he said that new agents are being recruited.
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