Federal Air Marshals

Air Safety Week,  Jan 23, 2006  

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For the time being, last month's fatal shooting of a passenger by an air marshal at Miami International Airport (MIA) has put the spotlight on the highly secretive Federal Air Marshal Services' (FAMS) policies and procedures. One such emerging issue concerns the training that would-be marshals receive in managing passengers, like the one in Miami, who apparently had a mental illness. Current FAMS training goes through a range of scenarios, including how to respond to passengers who demonstrate "abnormal behavior," FAMS spokesman Dave Adams tells Air Safety Week. Before being posted, would-be marshals first get seven weeks of training in New Mexico, followed by another seven weeks in Georgia, with refreshers and follow-ups at 21 FAMS field offices as employment continues, all of which includes managing such passengers. Although Adams insists there are no plans to change program policy based on the Miami incident, he also concedes there eventually may be a change to the FAMS training syllabus. Moreover, it is difficult to predict what may happen until the local law enforcement investigation is completed, he adds. FAMS training is managed by the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, which normally handles public-relations questions. For issues related to the Miami case, the center referred Air Safety Week back to FAMS.

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