MacLeanBarrier

The public should demand the UNREDACTED copy of the September 28, 2011 Radio Technical Commission on Aeronautics study report (No. RTCA DO-329) on how effective the Federal Air Marshal program is at stopping another 9/11 attack as the 9/11 Commission report described on its page 158:

https://abcnews.go.com/US/18-years-9...ry?id=65125617

Part 2: "'Tension, mistrust': The allegedly toxic relationship between federal air marshals and their supervisors"

https://abcnews.go.com/US/tension-mi...ry?id=65125618

Boggie Dog

The simple solution is to disband the FAM service. 1,500 to 2,500 FAM's riding around in airplanes without a terrorist incident in 18 years suggest the need for these people is over estimated.

YadiMolina

There are 700 million air passengers in the US every year. For 18 years that means about 12 billion. TWELVE BILLION passengers. And the FAMs have intercepted how many terrorists?

(I know this simplistic calculation isn't totally correct in the risk / deterrence business, but the magnitude is useful.)

satman40

Boggie Dog

Not to beat a dead horse but how much protection do FAM's really provide? I'll offer up front that there is a detergent effect to some degree. That's about as far as it goes. Best numbers I have found suggest around 87,000 flights crossing the U.S. daily. Not sure if that includes GA and cargo only flights but would think so. So throwing some windage in the mix let's say that only 30,000 U.S. carrier passenger flights originate each day. Let us also assume that their are 3,000 FAM's available each and every day and only 1 FAM per airplane, which we know isn't the case. Well, anyone can see that the odds of a FAM being on the right airplane on the right day is not likely. Factor in that FAM's do not operate alone, have sick days, vacation, VIPR assignments and so forth and the odds that a FAM will be where they are needed on that one day is remote.

Remember there were only 4 airplanes successfully hijacked on 9/11, out of all the thousands of possible flights.

I think a better result would be achieved with mandatory FDDO's on all flights.

N830MH

Yes! That's exactly right! Only 4 aircraft who hijacked by terrorists. 2 aircraft who crashed into WTC, 1 aircraft went into Pentagon, and FLT#93 went into the field in Pennsylvania.

That's why there is no FAM before 9/11 attacks. So now, they already deployed Air Marshals on the commercial airplanes, they reinforcement the cockpit doors, and security is very tight. You can not go into cockpit during the flight.

Bearcat06

That's in correct.

There were 50 authorized positions with 33 flying on 9/11.

They belonged to the FAA (where they need to go back to and TSA completely dis-banded) but that's for another thread.

rickg523

I think passengers and staff have terminated more of the very few in-air hijack or breaching attempts than FAMs. Some say their presence is a deterrent, but that's simply unprovable.
It's just another overpriced piece of Security Theater. The real problem isn't the expense though. It's the creation of yet another cadre of weaponized Federal employees who feel entitled by having been cast in the role of "last line of defense" in the Patriot Act.