Interesting to think how relvant a Sky Marshall is in today's climate.
Under the previous paradigm of terrorist action - that of taking control of an aircraft and spending several hours flying it to another destination, then a Sky Marshall had time to plan, and take action - and even then they were really only considered by very high risk target airlines in the Middle East.
Now think about the most recent attack - the flight attendant was the first to realise what was happening - as is to be expected, she called for help and recieved it from all of the closest (presumably male) passengers.
What help would a Sky Marshall have been?
Arriving at the pile of bodies, dancing around the edge, waving his pistol, shouting "I am the authority here?"
I suppose that after the guy was under control, people would be grateful for a token "official" to arrest and watch over the guy who was actually taken into custody by the passengers.
[ 26 December 2001: Message edited by: Checkboard ]</p>