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Old November 20th, 2006, 07:33 PM posted to rec.travel.air
nobody[_1_]
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Posts: 356
Default "Marshals kept off plane at Reagan"

Mike wrote:
Marshals kept off plane at Reagan
A team of federal air marshals was prevented from protecting a recent
flight from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport because a gate
agent erroneously said they did not have the correct paperwork,


That is correct procedure in my opinion. When you have armed guys whose
paperwork is dubious, then the safe thing is to prevent them from boarding.

Just because the guy doesn't look "arab" doesn't mean he's not a potential
terrorist. There have been plenty of white american terrorists who go on
shooting sprees at schools, malls, highways etc and they don't fit some
physical profile.

There should however be some procedure where a gate agent can call a
supervisor to confirm the validity of paperwork when in doubt.

Besides, an aircraft is safer without the marshalls.