Foreign armed marshalls on Air NZ flights
March 14th, 2007 at 7:42 am by David FarrarThe Government has introduced legislation to allow both foreign and domestic armed air marshalls or AIr NZ flights.
I guess it was pretty inevitable, but I do wonder at the empirical evidence that air marshals prevent terrorism. Has there been a single case of air marshals preventing a terrorist attack? In the Robert Reid shoe bomber case it was passengers and crew who took action I think.
One ironic side effect of Sep 11 is that conventional terrorism on flights no longer works. Before Sep 11 passengers would allow hijackers to take a plane over and negotiate terms. Now the assumption is that the terrorists will crash the plane into some target and as you will all die under that scenario, then might as well rush the terrorists as only some of you may die that way, and you’ll save lives on the ground.
Finally I recall a friend’s suggestion as to how to stop terrorism and hijacking on flights. Instead of banning guns, he proposed you actually issue them. Every person as they board gets a loaded gun. However each gun has only one bullet. Hence any attempt at take over means you’ll only get one shot off, and probably end up shot 30 to 40 times 
Of course all those gun shots on board may not be healthy for the plane, which might explain why the idea has not been implemented!
Related posts:
- Armed Air Marshals
- Overbooking flights
- No extra screening for small regional flights.
- Flights to Vanuatu
March 14th, 2007 at 10:07 am
By way of evidence, when was the last time an El Al flight was highjacked?
Vote:March 14th, 2007 at 10:39 am
Eggzactly, and of course the silence from the trembling anti gun liberals, (whose policies made the 9/11 hijacker’s task such a breeze) is deafening.. Why don’t they know these things???? I’ll tell you why.. they’re main source of information is the MMM, and that pack of losers and wimps are always anti-gun and therefore would never call attention to the successes of El Al.
Vote:March 14th, 2007 at 10:48 am
Much as I dislike armed police, I think armed air marshalls would have a big impact in a terrorist confrontation and could save lives.
As DPF says, the exact 9/11 scenario is unlikely to occur again for lots of reasons. It’s hard to get weapons on flights, anyone middle eastern is especially intensely scrutinized, the cockpit doors are locked, and passengers would be much more likely to intervene.
But we can’t know what tricks would be tried in future. Terrorists armed with pistols or submachine guns and carrying explosives are a lot different to terrorists armed with box cutters and pilot 101 training. An inside job where that happens is not out of the question. An armed marshall might be able to do a lot.
The key danger seems to me to be around the chance that the marshall is discovered (or already known) and his/her weapon taken and used for hijacking.
I’ll bet it’s a suckful job too. How boring and uncomfortable.
Vote:March 14th, 2007 at 10:55 am
Labor likes the idea of armed guards to take out anyone smoking on the plane.
Vote:March 14th, 2007 at 11:50 am
Ha think if you have a child having a tantrum on the plane and give them a smack. You’ll be gunned down before they serve drinks
Vote:March 14th, 2007 at 12:04 pm
Am I the only one to notice that September 11 was in 2001 – it is now 2007 – it shouldn’t take over five years to get some basic legislation like this through parliament. Why is it only now that security on planes has been made legal?
Vote:March 14th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
David, I have one comment:
Non Lethal Rubber Bullets!
This makes your friends suggestion viable
Vote:March 14th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
fly anywhere with SC air NZ that does require jet flight and you can take anything on the plane.
Vote:The prop flights embark through the cattle yards at auck domestic and there is no security check. All you need is a booking and somebody else’s eftpos card for the electronic check in.
March 14th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
“anyone middle eastern is especially intensely scrutinized,”
Really? I thought that profiliong wasn’t allowed which is why they also scrutinise my 83 year old Dad, my 11 year old son and everyone in between. Every time I hear people moaning about waiting at airports now and the silliness of having your nail clippers and water confiscated I can’t help wondering if they curse Islamic terrorists who have caused all this aggravation. I do.
Vote:March 14th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
“Really? I thought that profiliong wasn’t allowed…”
Doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen anyway.
Vote:March 14th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
I’d rather face the risk of death than the known inconvenience of extra security.
Vote:March 14th, 2007 at 5:54 pm
You can thank muslims for all this crap.
And i wouldnt blame the marshals for looking hard at anyone middle eastern.
Air Marshals will become the norm on all national and internation flights as there are more and more muslims migrating here.
NZ will become unsafe just like UK and other Euro cities.
Vote:March 14th, 2007 at 6:42 pm
Has there been a single case of air marshals preventing a terrorist attack?
In 1970 there was an attempted hijacking of an El Al airlines plane but the Israelis already had air marshalls due to all the previous hijackings. The Israelis also had strengthened cockpit doors and a policy of not opening the door to hijackers under any circumstances. The pilot in this case put the plane into a dive knocking the 2 hijackers off their feet and the air marshals rushed them and shot one of them to death and beat the other one badly.
Vote:The (sick) beauty of Sept 11 was that it didn’t occur to the passengers that they were gonna die and that was the the hijackers trump card. That trump card has now been used and they won’t be using it again. Strengthened cockpit doors with a video screen to see who’s outside the door with a strict worldwide policy of not letting anyone in would be a good deterrence.
March 14th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
I heard on the radio today Keith Locke is against this idea because it would “lead to mid air shoot outs”
Vote:I suppose he means as opposed to mid air massacres or executions
April 22nd, 2007 at 3:48 pm
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Vote:April 22nd, 2007 at 3:49 pm
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