British Gov't Considering Air Marshals

Associated Press ^ | Sunday, December 01, 2002

[Dog Gone]

LONDON (AP) -- The government is considering the introduction of undercover armed police on passenger flights to prevent terrorist hijackings, officials said Sunday.

A report commissioned by the government on airline safety recommends that the ``sky marshals'' first join only trans-Atlantic flights. If that proved successful, the program should be extended to most flights, the report said.

The proposal is part of a report by former Conservative Party lawmaker Sir John Wheeler. A summary of the report published last month did not mention the sky marshals but a government spokeswoman confirmed it was being considered.

``The idea of sky marshals is one of the recommendations of the Wheeler report. Whilst it is an option, no decision has been taken on it yet,'' she said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Airlines could be asked to contribute to the cost of the sky marshals, The Sunday Times newspaper reported.

A spokeswoman for British Airways said the airline was already ``working closely'' with the government on the proposal.

``If armed police officers were to be introduced on U.K. aircraft by the government, we would need complete confidence that it would not compromise the overall safety of the aircraft,'' the spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity.

[spectre]

Are they going to arm them like the London Bobbies?

Concealed nightsticks?

[Bobibutu]

``If armed police officers were to be introduced on U.K. aircraft by the government, we would need complete confidence that it would not compromise the overall safety of the aircraft,''

Well - the safety of the aircraft has already been compromised in a Hi-Jacking and a projectile piercing the hull at altitude would be catastrophic - go figure - low velocity high caliber? - what do our boys use? Nite sticks? gimme a break...

[Dog Gone]

When the spokeswoman for a major British company has to remain anonymous in order to make such gutless statement, it makes you wonder.

[David Hunter]

You think that's bad, look at what the old EasyJet chairman said to the BBC about having armed marshals on airplanes (see the article below). We can't take a risk that those nasty guns might fall into the wrong hands you know, even if they might be able to save hundreds or thousands of lives!

UK planes could get armed sky marshals

By Pete Harrison LONDON (Reuters)

The government says it is considering putting armed sky marshals on passenger flights to guard against hijackers amid growing threats to Western travellers abroad. Last week's attacks on Israeli targets in Kenya, which killed 16, and the Bali nightclub bombing in October, which killed nearly 200, mainly Australians, have forced governments to consider how to protect travellers abroad. "Aviation security has moved up the agenda with the attacks in Kenya," a spokesman for the Transport Department said on Sunday. "A wide range of security measures have been considered since September 11, and sky marshals is one of them." He denied a report in the Sunday Times saying the government had already made its decision to introduce marshals, initially on trans-Atlantic flights. "It hasn't been ruled in, but it hasn't been ruled out either," said the spokesman. "No date has been set for a decision."

Though marshals could not have prevented last week's attempted missile attack on an Israeli flight leaving Kenya because the missiles were fired from the ground, sky marshals might have been able to prevent the September 11 attacks which were orchestrated from on board. Armed Israeli sky marshals have been credited with foiling a number of attempted hijacks, most recently when an Israeli Arab tried to enter the cockpit of an El Al flight from Tel Aviv to Istanbul armed with a knife on November 17. The option of sky marshals was put to the British government in a report into airline security that it commissioned in May from former minister Sir John Wheeler.

The issue is one that attracts strong debate. "Former easyJet chairman Stelios Haji-Ioannou told BBC television on Sunday he thought passengers and crew could have the element of surprise over hijackers. What worked on that tragic day (September 11) was a surprise. The first (hijack) worked, the second worked, the fourth didn't," he said. "The passengers, the customers, the crew overpowered the terrorists," he added. I think it's far better than having guns because they might fall in the wrong hands."

[Bacons Rebellion]

"Former easyJet chairman Stelios Haji-Ioannou told BBC television on Sunday he thought passengers and crew could have the element of surprise over hijackers. What worked on that tragic day (September 11) was a surprise. The first (hijack) worked, the second worked, the fourth didn't," he said. "The passengers, the customers, the crew overpowered the terrorists," he added. I think it's far better than having guns because they might fall in the wrong hands."


He fails to mention that the forth flight also went into the ground at full throttle killing everyone on the aircraft. I can only wonder which European school of critical thinking produced this clown.