sky marshal

A sky marshal (also known as air marshal or flight marshal) is an undercover law enforcement or security officer on board a commercial aircraft to counter aircraft hijackings. Sky marshals may be provided by airlines such as El Al (who provide sky marshals on every flight), or by government agencies such as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, German Federal Police, US Federal Air Marshal Service or the United Kingdom Metropolitan Police.

History

Canada

The Canadian Air Carrier Protection/Protective Program (CACPP) began on September 17, 2002 ^[1] when a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Royal Canadian Mounted Police with Transport Canada, the authority responsible for Canadian aviation security, and the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA), for the implementation and administration of the CACPP. ^[2]

The program is conducted by specially trained undercover, armed RCMP officers (known as Aircraft Protective Officers- APOs) on selected domestic and international flights and all flights to the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport ^[3]. Pilots and flight attendants are advised of their presence and the marshal will physically intervene should an unauthorized person attempt to gain control of an aircraft.^[4] APOs, however, will not be involved in controlling unruly passengers.^[5] While they are peace officer within Canadian territories, they rely on section 6(2) of the Tokyo Convention as a legal basis for intervening an incident outside of Canadian airspace.^[5]

By law, such officers are exempt from acquiring a permit for importing or exporting their duty firearms when crossing the border^[6]. However, the exact nature of their weaponry is not released to the public except they are "deadly and effective and should not damage the aircraft." ^[7]

US

The US Federal Aviation Administration began its "Sky Marshal" program in 1968, which eventually became the Federal Air Marshal Service in 1985. That year, an Egyptian security officer on board EgyptAir Flight 648 opened fire on three Abu Nidal Organization hijackers, killing one before being fatally shot himself.

In 2005, Rigoberto Alpizar was shot dead by two sky marshals on a jetway at Miami International Airport.

Currently, Federal Air Marshal Officers are under Transportation Security Administration.

Fictional references

The term "sky marshal" has seen reference in some works of science fiction, albeit in a very different context. In Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers, the Sky Marshal is the uniformed commander-in-chief of the Terran Federation military who has risen to the highest rank in both the naval and infantry branches of the military. The Terran Federation of the Starfire universe has a Sky Marshal in the exact same position. This usage is somewhat akin in the air force rank of air marshal.

In the film Executive Decision, the fictional Oceanic Airlines Flight 343 carried a Sky Marshal armed with a pistol, who played a minor role in subduing the Algerian hijackers.

The movie Anger Management starts off with a confrontation between Adam Sandler's character and an air marshal (played by Isaac C. Singleton Jr).

The air marshal played by Peter Sarsgaard is a central character in the suspense thriller Flightplan, starring Jodie Foster, Erika Christensen and Sean Bean.

In the film Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, air marshals tackle the titular protagonists to the ground after a passenger sees Kumar's marijuana bong in the lavatory, believing it to be a bomb, and the smoke coming from it poison gas; they are then sent to Guantanamo Bay as suspected terrorists.

In Passenger 57, the Chief Air Marshal of Atlantic International Airlines stops a group of hijackers from taking over a jumbojet.

In the movie Get Smart, the main character Maxwell Smart is mistakenly tackled by a sky marshal while beginning a mission on-board a plane.

References

See also

Look up sky marshal in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Federal Air Marshal Service
• Airline security
• Infrastructure Security