The Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) has become immortalized in popular culture, through films like Non-Stop. But few actually know what they do and how they have evolved over their history?
Recent years have proven to have brought the FAMS to the breaking point. Post-9/11, the role of the FAMS and their inability to prevent 9/11 has cast them in a poor light, with this often happening in the public eye.
What Does the Federal Air Marshal Service do?
The Federal Air Marshal Service, commonly abbreviated to the acronym FAMS, is the US’s federal law enforcement agency involved with protecting US domestic and international flights.
This means that any high-risk flight that originates or terminates anywhere in the US has at least one pair of air marshals on board. This means that a flight from New York to Amsterdam or a flight from Taipei to Atlanta will have Air Marshals on board.
Almost always, Air Marshals are undercover, acting as though they are just another passenger. However, many will identify themselves to the crew of the aircraft before the flight, and ask if either the pilot or co-pilot is armed (this comes from a policy that predates the Air Marshals).
Despite the fact that their main goal is to blend in, Air Marshals do carry firearms. In order to prevent them from being identified by an observant flyer, most Air Marshals walk straight past airport security.
Due to the nature of their profession, many Air Marshals fly in either first class or business class depending on room. However, if a potential threat is identified, they will be moved near the threat so they have the best advantage.
Although not their only role, an Air Marshal’s primary goal is to prevent the hijacking of US flights. Other roles often include things such as preventing the bombing of US flights as well as preventing hostage situations about US flights.
Training
As the threats to flights have evolved over the past 60 years, so has their training. When it was first established, the training was akin to standard police training, with additional marksmanship and hostage negotiation training.
Today, the training still resembles the original training, although is much more advanced and is far more rigorous. Now, the training is a 16 week long, two-phase training program.
The first phase is a seven-week course carried out at Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Artesia, New Mexico. Here the recruits learn the basics of handling themselves and negotiation tactics
The second phase is a nine-week course carried out at the at the Federal Air Marshal Service Training Center in New Jersey. Here, the recruits learn advanced field tactics, with an emphasis on marksmanship.
Equipment
Just as how the Air Marshal Service has changed its training over the years, they have also changed the equipment that they use- mostly introducing non-lethal weapons. To date, their equipment includes:
- SIG Sauer P229/SIG Sauer P239 chambered in .357 SIG
- ASP 16″ expandable baton
- Handcuffs
However, in January 2020, the FAMS announced that they’d be phasing out their more powerful P229s and P239s and replacing them with less powerful 9mm Glock 19s to prevent the rounds from going through the target and the fuselage with one round.
During their training, Air Marshals are taught to first attempt to diffuse the situation without their weapons. If that fails, attempt to use their baton, only using their firearm if there is an immediate threat to life.
As a part of their rigorous firearms training, Air Marshals are taught to shoot a hijacker in their center of mass (eg. in the chest). If that fails, or the threat still persists, they are to aim for the head to “incapacitate the nervous system.”
History
The Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) has also had a very long and rich history, beginning in 1961 and lasting all the way up to today!
1852 – 1961
In 1852, the first crude airship was flown by Henri Giffard or Alberto Santos-Dumont, with that design later being improved by Count Zeppelin. This inspired a series of airship airlines, owned by the companies that produced airships.
In 1903, the Wright Brothers took the first flight of a heavier-than-air aircraft. Just as with airships, this too inspired a series of airlines, with some of the oldest airlines being founded not much long after.
Originally, these flights were transporting cargo or airmail, but soon became used to transport people too. In the early days of flying, only the rich could afford to fly, making them good targets for criminals.
As such, many of the larger early airlines began to pay for people to protect their passengers, not only on the ground but also in the air too. However, this was only on high risk flights, with some airlines not doing it anyway.
This was naturally quite costly, which led to some airlines arming the pilots instead, just paying them slightly more. The former tradition has since been stopped almost entirely, with the latter becoming rarer, but is still in use.
With that being said, it wasn’t 100% effective. With the advent of small but powerful explosives, hijackings became more common. On some flights, neither the pilot or co-pilot was armed (as this was reserved for firearms-trained pilots).
In other cases, the pilot or the co pilot were firearms-trained but weren’t always trained to handle these types of situations…
Formation
The end of the 1950’s and beginning of the 1960’s saw more people flying than ever before, commonly referred to as the Golden Age of Aviation. With this, a spike in hijackings also occurred with 40 happening worldwide between 1958 and 1967.
This brought the West together, drafting up a set of treaties dictating who’s job it was to prosecute hijackers and protect flights- the country where the aircraft was registered. The FAA also instituted a series of laws regarding firearms on aircraft.
Soon after becoming president, in 1961, President John F. Kennedy ordered the creation of a law enforcement agency that could be deployed as security officers on high-risk flights in and out of the US.
On March 2 1962, the Federal Air Marshal Service was officially created under the name of FAA Peace Officers Program and under the jurisdiction of the FAA. The first officers graduated the same day, having been handpicked by the FAA Administrator personally.
By 1963, the FAA Peace Officers were known unofficially as Sky Marshals inside the FAA. By the 1970’s, the media would begin calling them Sky Marshals too.
These early officers were nothing like the modern Air Marshals. They didn’t carry firearms, nor did were they trained specifically in hand-to-hand combat (although some were military trained beforehand).
Early Years
Within a few years, it became standard for Air Marshals to carry firearms on flights. They would also receive hand-to-hand and other close quarters combat training from instructors at the FBI Academy.
Despite many countries implementing their own air marshal programs, the 1960’s saw an increase in the number of hijackings on flights originating and terminating in the Middle East, especially to and from the US.
Many of these hijackings happened from flights originating in Florida and the US in general, where obtaining firearms is significantly easier. As such, the US Marshals Service created a dedicated division operating from their Miami field office.
This division, known as the Sky Marshal Division, was given additional members and funding in order to combat air piracy to and from the Middle East. By January 1970, the Sky Marshal Program became a joint operation.
The FAA and the then United States Customs Service (USCS) joined together to use the Sky Marshals to patrol the skies. In order to better do this, the Sky marshals were put under the control of former Tuskegee airman Benjamin O. Davis Jr.
In September 1970, President Nixon ordered armed security personnel to be placed on flagged US commercial flights. Initially these personnel were from the US Treasury, but were soon transferred to USCS’ Division of Air Security.
Expansion
By 1973, the FAA began screening all passengers at US airports. This negated much of the duties of the Division of Air Security and soon saw them disbanded and reabsorbed to the USCS, fulfilling other roles.
By 1974, the FAA’s newly renamed Federal Air Marshal Service was still running, although still very small. Only 10-12 new recruits were trained each year due to a lack of funding, as well seeing armed officers becoming rarer.
This saw an uptake in firearms-trained pilots and/or co pilots bringing their own firearms aboard flights as per pre-FAMS regulations. However, it still wasn’t enough. Many of the remaining Air Marshals simply didn’t fly anymore either.
In 1985, TWA Flight 847 was hijacked, and the hijackers were set free. This angered President Reagan, believing that it would spark future hijacking attempts of American aircraft, in the Middle East.
As such, he and Congress signed into law, the International Security and Development Cooperation Act, which increased funding for the Federal Air Marshal Service and expanded their jurisdiction.
With this additional funding, the number of Air Marshals shot up. Originally, this funding only covered domestic flights, but was soon expanded to international flights as well.
This was not done, however, without making agreements with European and Asian countries regarding Air Marshals bringing in firearms to their country. Mostly, this was regarding to securing them after the flight.
9/11
Despite Reagan giving the Federal Air Marshal Service a great deal of extra funding, by the time of 9/11, this had shrunk once again. At the FAMS’ height, they had over 1,700 active personnel, who were in the top 1% of combat shooters..
By 9/11, there were only 50 authorized Air Marshals, with only 33 active on 9/11. Not a single Air Marshall was one any of the flights that were hijacked or were thought to be hijacked on 9/11.
Shortly after 9/11, this fact came to light, with many friends and family of the victims calling for more funding for the FAMS or for them to be disbanded.
Following 9/11, as with many other organizations designed to help protect the US’s borders, President George W. Bush gave the FAMS additional funding, in order to expand the number of Air Marshals.
Bush personally tasked then-director Greg McLaughlin to hire, train and deploy 600 new Air Marshals each month, a US record. By August 2013, it was estimated that there were around 4,000 Air Marshals in the sky.
Throughout the 2010’s, the Federal Air Marshal Service’s reputation was at record lows. Still, many journalists, aviators and relatives of 9/11 victims called for the Air Marshals to be disbanded.
Today
In May 2013, Federal Air Marshal Clay Biles published the first ever book about the history of the Federal Air Marshal Service. Three days after its publication, Biles was forced to resign from the FAMS.
As could be expected, this book quickly sold out, and Biles became an overnight celebrity. He was soon interviewed by hundreds of media outlets. Following the release of his first book, he published a second, which had a similar effect.
These two books brought to light several details that the FAMS didn’t want the public to know. This once again saw the FAMS put in a bad light in the public’s eye.
In 2014, the movie Non-Stop, featuring actors Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore. The movie features Air Marshal Bill Marks (Liam Neeson) who must stop a terrorist before they kill someone every 20 minutes.
The movie has been given a mixture of reviews, with some people liking the movie and others hating it. However, it did once again bring the Federal Air Marshal Service into the public light.
It is currently estimated by Biles that there are around 3,300 active Federal Air Marshals, with only around two thirds of these agents being active (the other third being in training, as instructors or as managers).
Estimates range on the percentage of flights with Air Marshals on them. On the low end, its estimated that 1% of US flights have Air Marshals on them, with the high end stating that 5% of US flights have Air Marshals on them.
Future
The Federal Air Marshal Service, as with most other federal agencies, keeps their plans for the future a closely-guarded secret. Not even Clay Biles knows what will happen in the next few years with the FAMS, and if he does, he’s not going to say much.
In March 2014, the Federal Air Marshal Service’s budget was cut, resulting in the closure of six of its twenty-six field offices. However, in 2016, President Trump announced plans to expand border protection, possibly including the FAMS, possibly not.
With the upcoming 2020 Presidential election, it is entirely possible that the FAMS will be left behind, with their funding slashed once again. However, the next president, whoever it may be, may decide to increase that budget once again.
What do you think of the FAMS- are they a waste of money or not? Tell me in the comments!