Chennai: Air passengers need not get alarmed by the recent reports of hijack and bomb threats, say officials of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), pointing out that the bureau has been using ‘sky marshals’ on board select flights to manage any emergencies in air. Besides, security at all airports has been tightened further.
“We procure regular tickets for them and send them on flights when we suspect some problem. Even the concerned airline wouldn’t be aware of their presence,” said a senior BCAS official, adding that at times even two to three sky marshals would be deployed on a single flight but they themselves wouldn’t know each other on the flight. “This practice has been in vogue for quite sometime and used frequently during emergency situations.”
While the officer’s words should comfort the passengers, his admission of an obvious systemic flaw causes concern. It would be dangerous to place more than one sky marshal on a flight and one does not know about the other, as then there could be fatal engagements between them in a fast-paced rescue operation during a hijack or bomb threat in air.
16/08/14 P.A. Jebaraj/Deccan Chronicle
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“We procure regular tickets for them and send them on flights when we suspect some problem. Even the concerned airline wouldn’t be aware of their presence,” said a senior BCAS official, adding that at times even two to three sky marshals would be deployed on a single flight but they themselves wouldn’t know each other on the flight. “This practice has been in vogue for quite sometime and used frequently during emergency situations.”
While the officer’s words should comfort the passengers, his admission of an obvious systemic flaw causes concern. It would be dangerous to place more than one sky marshal on a flight and one does not know about the other, as then there could be fatal engagements between them in a fast-paced rescue operation during a hijack or bomb threat in air.
16/08/14 P.A. Jebaraj/Deccan Chronicle
