Nervous Flyer News

Time Online asks "Air Marshals Or Cowboys?"

There was something a bit rich about Washington ordering other countries to place armed guards on certain flights entering the US, as Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge did on Dec. 29. After all, the country making the rules still does not inspect the vast majority of its cargo or all of its checked baggage at its airports, standard procedures in some countries. And America's several thousand armed air marshals have figured in 600 reports of misconduct from October 2001 to July 2003. Last year a marshal was fired for drawing his gun on a man who had stolen his airport parking spot.

Also for reassurance, try "A marshal was suspended two years ago after he left his gun in a lavatory on a United flight from Washington to Las Vegas, a USA Today investigation revealed. A passenger discovered the weapon."

I don't for a second believe that the level of competence of any British marshals would be any different.