MARSHALS ON UK FLIGHTS

sky news ^ | Last Updated: 22:04 UK, Saturday February 14, 2004

[gdyniawitawa]

MARSHALS 'ON UK FLIGHTS'

Armed US air marshals are flying in and out of Scotland on-board passenger flights, it has been claimed.

They are said to have been aboard a number of flights over the last two weeks.

That was since a Continental Airlines flight from Glasgow to the United States was grounded in a terror alert, according to a report in the Sunday Mail newspaper.

A spokesman for the Transportation and Security Administration, based in Washington DC refused to confirm or deny the report.

He said: "There are thousands of federal air marshals flying on US domestic carriers every day and, when intelligence necessitates, we do ask that armed marshals fly on specific foreign flights.

"We would never say which flights the marshals are on for security reasons."

He would only go as far to say that it was "possible" that such guards had been aboard flights taking off from Glasgow.

The TSA is part of America's new homeland security department.

Neither the Foreign Office, Strathclyde Police, Continental Airlines or Glasgow Airport would comment on the matter.

The Continental flight to Los Angeles via Newark was grounded a fortnight ago due to a terrorist alert.

[Poundstone]

This is interesting because the head-in-the-sand British Airline Pilots Association has "decided" its members will never fly with armed marshals on board. I say "decided" because, obviously, there's nothing they can do if the US is putting marshals on board secretly. What's the Association gonna do -- have a union rep interview every passenger in an attempt to devine which ones are actually marshals?

I hope, think, and believe the US is secretly placing marshals on these flights, if for no other reason than to expose the British Airline Pilots Association's idiotic policy as the sham it is.