There is no such thing as 100% airline security. The most innocuous looking item can be used or adapted as a weapon. No matter what passenger profiling you carry out, potential terrorists cannot always be detected by such methods. In terms of risk management, the provision of armed air marshals, as an additional (and possibly last) line of defence, can only be a good thing.
Just as all aircraft passengers are asked to trust that their captain is competent to do his job, so aircraft captains are going to have to trust that air marshals are competent to do theirs. It ought to go without saying that it would not be prudent to brief airline crew on the training and methods of operation of air marshals, though, as the Transport Secretary has confirmed, captains will be made aware, when air marshals are to be deployed on their aircraft.
Part of the deterrent effect of deploying air marshals is to give their introduction maximum publicity. If BALPA's very public carping is any more than a clever DFT co-ordinated effort, to publicise the new measure, BALPA really needs to ask itself if it is acting responsibly.
Last edited by Scud-U-Like; 30th Dec 2003 at 15:09.