He or she also has to distinguish between a
conventional hijack best dealt with by negotiation (are
sky marshalls trained to conduct hostage-release
negotiations?) which are the vast majority of cases,
and a rare attempt to use an airliner as a suicide bomb.

I think that the sky marshal would choose to err on the side of
caution--i.e., to kill or wound the hijacker rather than worry about
his motives. No American jury would fault him for that.

You have touched on a sore spot: the training. Whenever I look at
police officers, I see a heart attack waiting to happen. They are
mostly overweight; they mostly spend their days sitting down (the sky
marshal would be required to sit down!); their diet is mostly awful;
and if they have to go into action, it is likely to be sudden and
stressful.

Bam!

How well trained are these sky-marhsal guys (and girls, of course:
likely the hiring ratio was 50/50 by fiat)? What kind of shape are
they in after a year or two on the job?

I seem to remember an incident where a passenger kept returning to a
suitcase in the overhead bin, and the sky marshal put everyone in a
state of terror by waving his pistol around and requiring the
passengers to freeze in their seats. Not very reassuring.


all the best -- Dan Ford
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