Air marshals break hiring drought

WASHINGTON - The Federal Air Marshal Service is set to begin hiring for the first time since the agency ramped up dramatically in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, MSNBC.com has learned.  The hiring announcement could come as soon as next week and would add badly needed new recruits to a rank-and-file membership that has been steadily declining.

“We hope that very soon, within the next week perhaps, and I would hope that no later than a month, to be announcing positions for federal air marshals nationwide,” said David Adams, a spokesman for the Federal Air Marshal Service.  “We’ve been working to write a new job description,” Adams said. “And we’re in the process of vetting the requirements of the job through internal channels.”

On Sept. 11, 2001, there were only 33 air marshals in federal service; within months that number had jumped to thousands (the actual number is classified) when Congress reinvigorated the service by authorizing a massive buildup of the agency, which was first created in the 1970’s after a rash of airline hijackings.

Air marshals are armed, inconspicuous agents that fly on commercial airlines. They are trained and authorized to use deadly force, if needed, to thwart potential hijackings.

Adams said the aim of the new hiring push will be to return the air marshal corps to its congressionally mandated level, though he said that process will "come in stages" and not in a single round of hiring.  Adams declined to say how many new hires the service expects to hire this year or in how many stages.

Rank-and-file air marshals have seen their numbers dwindle steadily at an attrition rate of about 6.5 percent per year, about average for a government law enforcement agency, with only 100 new recruits brought on board since the agency’s initial round of hiring in 2001.  In addition, air marshals now spend time on Joint Terrorism Task Forces, a move that further reduces the number available for flight duty. 

Meanwhile, international flights covered by air marshals also reduce the number of domestic flights they are on. “Each additional international mission results in approximately four fewer domestic missions,” that an air marshal can fly, agency officials told investigators from the Government Accountability Office last year.

Even at full strength, the air marshals can only cover a fraction of the nation’s estimated 28,000 daily commercial flights.  Officials from the Air Marshal Service have refuted published reports that its current strength allows it to cover only three or four percent of the nation’s commercial flights.  Agency Director Thomas Quinn, while not providing specifics, previously told MSNBC.com that the agency covers “more than five percent” of the nation’s daily flights. 

A complex threat matrix, based on intelligence and vulnerability reports, determines what flights air marshals will cover.  Some airports, such as those in New York and Washington, D.C., considered to be at higher risk for terrorism, carry a much higher percentage of air marshals on flights than other airports, according to agency officials.

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