Sky Marshalls not working??? - Airliners-India

the_380 · Member

Sky Marshalls not working???

karatecatman · Member

Alliance Air had a very bad experience with its sky marshalls.

They were sourced from a particular State ploice cadre and they were stopped after a few of them behaved very indecently with the cabin crew. One particular news report had graphic details of how one SI ______ himself to the crew. Unbelievable but true and this was on the Delhi-Raipur-Bhubanneshwar sector. After it began happening regularly the cabin crew filed police cases and the Ministry of Civil Aviation scrapped the scheme for CD.

D-ABTH · Member

its sad if this is true.... maybe this "status" thing or "power" trip of being a "sky marshall" has set up twisted ideas in our security forces heads....

the best and frankly the ABSOLUTE best of the sky marshall example is El Al... and having seeing how El Al operate from reasonably close quarters... i have nothing but the HIGHEST RESPECT for them....

as far as safety and protection goes.... you can be sure they're the best.

the_380 · Member

yes ur right even though with so much threat not even 1 plane has been hijacked

karatecatman · Member

Indian too wasn't too happy as it had to provide accomodation at certain stations. The same marshall returned with the crew back to base. A few made unreasonable demands like having a flying allowance and wanting five-star accommodation.

Sky marshalls were often very drunk.

Some sky marshalls also felt their careers were getting ruined as the job was to remain seated and behaving in a discreet manner. On certain sectors like Calcutta-Lucknow-Delhi and Bombay-Bhopal-Agra-Delhi and return, as there was no change of sky marshall, many just had to fly up and down the whole day.

-- Edited by karatecatman at 19:16, 2006-06-24

HAWK21M · Member

Were the Sky Marshalls from CISF.

regds

MEL

karatecatman · Member

CISF moved in mainly after skya marshalls from the various State police cadre were found to be indisciplined. But CISF has only ground duties.

CISF have fitted the role very well and have conducted themselves very well. There system of intensive ground checks including that third time check and frisking/step ladder check just before boarding was to cut down the risk of a hijack.

Has been very successful.

_____________

In Chennai for instance, when Chennai State police were on duty, it was terrrible. Regularly extorted money from passengers going to or returning from the Gulf and were very indisciplined.

karatecatman · Member

Chennai police were finally withdraww when a Chennai police constable drove a tourist taxi into the departure area smashing through the panels and windows. The constable said he was learning to drive.

After this and complaints of extortion, the DGP decided they would go.

the_380 · Member

smashing windows???

was he some sort of a terrorist or something or as regular was he drunk

karatecatman · Member

It shows absolute boredom.

Not doing what he was to do. Learning to drive is not what he was there for or meant for.

karatecatman · Member

DABTH wrote:

its sad if this is true.... maybe this "status" thing or "power" trip of being a "sky marshall" has set up twisted ideas in our security forces heads....

Here is another incident in 2002.

Sky marshal harasses Alliance cabin crew
Byas Anand
[ Tuesday, June 04, 2002 12:30:32 amTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

NEW DELHI: A sky marshal on an Alliance Air flight has been charged with sexually harassing an air hostess.
Airline sources said that the incident occured on an Agartala-Guwahati-Kolkata flight. The sky marshal — positioned to ensure safety of passengers and air crew —is charged with having made lewd remarks.
On being rebuked by the crew, he allegedly m________ in front of the air hostess.
Alliance Air officials told The Times of India that the incident is being investigated.
Alliance Air is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Indian Airlines, with the national carrier being in charge of its security and ground handling divisions.
"There was an incident of harassment by the sky marshall and it is being investigated. I cannot give more details but we have already launched an inquiry into the matter," said an IA spokesperson.
Airline sources pointed out that the sky marshal in question has already been charged once before with sexual harassment, but no action has been taken against him.

karatecatman · Member

Another one in 2004

Times of India

Local

Monday December 27, 2004 12:09 PM

Sky marshal not allowed to board flight

By Kashif Khusro

An elite National Security Guard (NSG) commando deputed as sky marshal on a Jet Airways flight allegedly misbehaved with the doctor during a pre-flight medical test in a drunken stupor.

The incident occurred in Mumbai on December 23 at the Jet Airways pre-flight medical test centre for the crew at the domestic airport in Santacruz. The doctor is on the panel of specialists employed by Jet Airways for pre-flight check-ups.

In a detailed report to the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), Jet Airways has said that Subhedar R K Singh (name changed) of the NSG, who was designated as a sky marshal on a flight to Delhi, arrived for the pre-flight medical test in an inebriated state and misbehaved with the doctor on duty.

“Singh was armed and was scheduled to fly Delhi on the flight as a sky marshal. But the duty doctor complained to us that he was drunk and subsequently was not allowed to board the aircraft,” said a Jet offic ial.

A senior BCAS official confirmed that the complaint against Singh has been received but declined to comment on the nature of the inquiry to be done.

“Sky-marshals are a very high security issue and we do not discuss about them in public.

Even the airlines do not know which flight has a sky-marshal,” he said. “A detailed inquiry will be done and if he is found guilty of misbehaving he will be duly punished.”

Airlines however are sceptical about the whole exercise after the incident.

“If a commando from the NSG out to prevent hijacking and terrorist activities is drunk, then what is point of us bearing his ticket expenses and flying him,” argued a senior Sahara Airlines official.

A Jet spokesperson in New Delhi refrained from commenting on the issue.

Who is a sky marshal?

Sky marshals are armed commandos of the elite NSG, put on domestic flights by the BCAS to quell a hijack or terrorist attack.

They were introduced after the IC-814 hijack from Kathmandu to Kandahar in December 1999. The sky-marshals mingle with passengers on the flight.

Their schedule is extremely secretive.

Aseem · Member

on the flip side, I had come across reports that sky marshall were not being offered food on a full service carriers, and hence were easily identified. A few of them complained also.

But that does not nullify what all disrespectful things they have been doing.

rgds

VT-ASJ

vivekman · Member

I have seen sky-marshalls on the BOM-CMB flight on Sri Lankan Airlines. These were in uniform (blue-dark blue) and consisted of one male and one female guard. They were pretty quiet and were seated on the last row of the A320. They did a round of the passenger cabin once at BOM after the passengers had finished boarding.

I didn't see any sky-marshalls on the CMB-BKK flight though. However, the BOM-CMB flight was actually a KHI-BOM-CMB flight.

the_380 · Member

They r many times in civil dress

karatecatman · Member

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1041460

India deploys air marshals after terror attacks

IANS
Thursday, July 13, 2006 19:50 IST

NEW DELHI: Air marshals have been deployed on selected flights in India for passenger safety following threat reports from intelligence agencies after Tuesday's terror attacks in Mumbai and Srinagar, officials said Thursday.

"We have deployed air marshals today. Some more security systems are already in place," Civil Aviation Secretary Ajay Prasad told reporters here, adding that intelligence reports warn of threats at some tourist destinations in India.

While Prasad refused to divulge the routes on which marshals have been deployed, sources said while most flights to Kashmir and certain sectors in the North-East will have these commandoes, others destinations will be picked at random.

The ministry had also decided to set up some new security procedures at airports and instructions issued to the concerned agencies, he said after a meeting here between officials of the ministries of civil aviation and home.

Officials of GMR, which has been mandated to modernise the Delhi airport, and Airports Authority of India also attended the meeting.

"There would be significant changes in security measures at airports. We have deployed dog and bomb disposal squads. Emphasis will be on using more equipment and technology rather than manual searching," Prasad said.

"The measures are being taken up because some reports have been received by the security agencies that some important airports and tourist destinations in the country are under threat," he said.

A second layer of checking passengers and baggage would also be done for certain international and domestic flights, Prasad said. Visitors have been denied access to the arrival and departure terminals till further orders.

"We have decided to carry out checks at aerobridges and step ladders before a passenger gets on the plane. Passengers would also have to go through personal body search before getting on the flight."

Prasad said there were, indeed, some flight delays due to the stringent security measures, since it took time to check all baggage and passengers manually. "But Thursday was the first day of the new procedures. Delays will be reduced soon."

Aseem · Member

some development regarding security at airports

Security tips from London
The Mumbai train blasts have at long last shaken the Ministry of Civil Aviation into some action. CISF, responsible for security at country's 54 important airports, has sent a detailed proposal for equipping airports with sophisticated security gadgets.
A team headed by CISF's DG SIS Ahmed toured Heathrow Airport in London recently to study the security gadgets installed there. "Theirs is a vastly different security scenario compared to ours. In India, we are suffering the brunt of terrorism and practices will have to be different here. But we feel the need to buttress the security with help of technology," said he.
Ahmed said that the Ministry of Civil Aviation has been apprised with the requirement for sophisticated equipment at the airports. "This is being taken up on a priority basis and the gadgets will be in place soon," said he.
Apart from checking for explosives and weapons, CISF has proposed to put in place an extensive access control system. "This will allow us to focus on passengers and baggage. For a biometrics system will have the palm/fingerprint and retina scan of each person working at the airport. Similarly, vehicles which frequent the operational area will also be identified with radio infrared tags," said an officer.
CISF will also deploy more sniffer dog squads. Orders have been placed for seven X-Ray machines of which three have been installed and the other four will be installed during the second week of August 2006.

Hindustan Times

rgds

VT-ASJ