men in dark suits havent come yet, so here is another one:
What happens on a stopover, where the officer is not authorised to possess a personal weapon? Does he leave it in the A/C?
To me, a skymarshal has to be part of the crew. Fine, they can be a police officer or soldier, but I think they would have to be on something like a 3-4 year secondment, and cabin crew training would have to take into account actions and reactions on a threat being established.
And another thing - it is only in exceptional circumstances that we deploy armed police officers on their own. So thats TWO seats per a/c please.
Its funny, but common sense rarely prevails. Some forces are starting to cotton on to the idea of providing armed escorts to cash in transit to cut down on armed robberies. Didn't take a rocket scientist to work that one out.
Armed officers on aircraft are a good idea, but the manual will have to be about as thick as a Littlewoods catalogue, and embrace a fully thought out and integrated approach