One-way tickets? True. But they were already booked on JetBlu for a follow-on flight.
Expired visas? Yes, except for the one fellow who was a U.S. citizen.
Ignored by authorities? Utterly false. Something like 4-5 different agencies interviewed these men.
If the air marshals agreed with Ms. Jacobsen, I'd be concerned. They did not; I am not.
Actually, the authorities lied. They briefly (less than 15 minutes) spoke to 2 of the 14 men, and then released them all. The ICE never spoke to them. They told Jacobsen that they verified that these men were musicians and that they were followed to their hotel. That never happened. Curiously, the musicians could never be found again, even when an offer was extended to perform on network television.
If you believe Jacobsen is just a silly woman with time on her hands, do you also believe the man found trying to remove paneling in a plane lavatory to reach the flight deck was merely trying his hand at re-decorating? That Richard Reid was pulling up his socks? That all of this is just overreaction to non-threats? And why?
Makes you question the effectiveness of the Air Marshals. We can certainly appreciate their function, but if their rules hamper their effectiveness, what good are they ? It's just another scam to lull the flying public, like the airport security procedures.
I don't know if the same rules exist today as existed when this article was written, but at the time, if the air marshals sat in first class they would not have seen what was going on in cabin class when Jacobsen flew NW Airline and subsequently wrote her article.