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Training sky marshals is deadly serious business
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Training sky marshals is deadly serious businessBy Marco R. della Cava, USA TODAY By Jeff Reinking for USA TODAY USA TODAY reporter Marco R. della Cava, aided by Greg Hoover of Seattle's Advanced Interactive Systems, takes aim at video hijackers. SEATTLE - For any frequent flier, the scene is so routine, it borders on the invisible.As the packed jetliner reaches cruising altitude, a flight attendant appears at the front of the plane to announce that passengers are free to move about the cabin. At the rear of the Boeing 737, other stewards prepare coffee and snacks. A few folks stand to retrieve items from the overhead bins.But the deceptive calm will be shattered by deadly chaos. And I, the flight's sky marshal, am the only one who can stop it. As a strapping man makes his way toward the cockpit, my heart rate soars as my palms press hard into the heavy steel of a Beretta 92F pistol.This airborne drama is a video-based simulation created by Advanced Interactive Systems, which devised a pair of scenarios that reflect both the events of Sept. 11 and the input of hijacking experts. While security concerns mean that little is known about the federal sky marshal program, founded in 1968 to counter hijackings to Cuba, AIS' simulator provides a look at how future sky marshals might train to protect increasingly threatened skies.AIS training programs already are used by police departments in Seattle and Portland, Ore., the U.S. Border Patrol and various federal agencies, including the New York National Guard. A few months ago, Canadian federal security officials approached AIS to modify their police-focused products to train sky marshals. They'll travel here later this month to view AIS' new training scenarios. Both were experienced this week by USA TODAY, one involving a passenger with a bomb, the other a threatened flight attendant.The USA's own air security needs will be met by the new Transportation Security Administration, which will hire 28,000 passenger and baggage screeners, as well as an undisclosed number of air marshals. (Some industry experts guess the current number of marshals hovers around 40 - enough for some international flights - and predict the new force could number 4,000.)"Unfortunately, these are good times for us," says AIS president Timothy May, whose systems range from less than $20,000 for a portable version to several hundred thousand for complete trailer-based facilities.Although officials at the Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees the sky marshal program until it falls under Transportation Security Administration jurisdiction next month, are tight-lipped about their plans, they are "extremely interested" in video-based training systems, says FAA spokeswoman Rebecca Trexler."We are hoping to find something that might offer a 360-degree experience (for trainees)," Trexler says. Marshals currently train aboard grounded airplanes - an impractical practice if the number of marshals swells significantly."Virtual training technology is very valuable, particularly if you're faced with the daunting task of hiring thousands of new marshals," says Douglas Laird, former security chief for Northwest Airlines and now an aviation security consultant for BGI International.Training issues aside, Laird is a sky marshal skeptic. He cites the sheer number and expense of marshals necessary to guard some 30,000 U.S. flights daily ("And I think you'd have to have two per plane") as well as the risks inherent in each onboard confrontation."In my opinion, you could be better off simply improving your screening and security on the ground," he says. "There is a huge difference between a shootout at a 7-Eleven and one inside a crowded metal cylinder filled with people flying at 30,000 feet."'Never shot a gun, huh?'Greg Hoover, 6-foot-4 and barrel-chested, walks with the bearing of someone who for years called the SWAT division of the Los Angeles Police Department home.Now with AIS, Hoover is in charge of running police officers through the company's simulators and has trained some of the best and brightest of law enforcement worldwide. My own handgun experience reached its zenith at age 7, when I hit my cat with plastic discs shot out of a Star Trek phaser and decided that was enough of that. I fear an impending disaster."Never shot a gun, huh?" says Hoover, slipping a device onto my finger that registers my pulse. It's racing. After a spell, it settles in the 60s; Hoover wants to see that double during my sky marshal stint."If you don't have an adrenaline rush, something's wrong," he barks. (He won't be disappointed.)Since security veterans often are the best sky marshal candidates, Hoover races me through a 20-year career in 10 minutes: learning how to hold a gun (keep your trigger finger extended, not on the trigger where a muscle spasm could cause a discharge); how to take a stance (arms extended and elbows locked); how to react if the gun misfires (check the magazine, but at that point I was totally lost).Hoover asks product manager (and another ex-cop) Carl Ueland to put targets on the screen. I squeeze the trigger until my extended arms sag with fatigue. Amazingly, the results seem to indicate that my phaser days have paid off. I'm told I'm ready for my moment of sky-bound bedlam.And I actually think I am, and take a seat in a makeshift "row" in the middle of the plane.Computerized trainingThe AIS sky marshal training system uses two 7 1/2-by-9 1/2-foot screens, placed fore and aft of the seated participant, that play live-action scenes that a computer will change, or "branch," based on the actions taken by the trainee.Shoot the right person at the right time with either the Beretta or a Glock 17 - both police-issue firearms modified to shoot beams of light - and the scene spools forward to a safe conclusion. Make a mistake and your virtual self will head to the morgue.Video games may come to mind, but between the screams and blood of real people (not animated figures) and the sophistication of the program (it can tell you the precise location and timing of every shot discharged), the difference is readily apparent. When was the last time a video game left you feeling anxious, shaking and somewhat nauseous?Resume airplane scenario.The well-built man has re-emerged from the front galley, holding a knife to the throat of the flight attendant who shields his body. Trained to assess threats front and rear, I spin my head toward the plane's rear and see a man making stabbing motions with his right arm behind a seat.I decide he poses the immediate threat and move to take him down. I fire once, then twice. Five shots in all before he starts to fall.I wheel around to the front expecting to dispatch another terrorist. But all I see is a woman with hate in her eyes and a raised knife in her hand. Her body soon fills the screen, which then fades to black.We replay the scene. To me, it felt like minutes. In reality: I fired five shots at the terrorist behind me in a frantic 1.35 seconds."Were you focused on the gun's front sight?" Hoover asks, knowing the answer. I shake my head, the panic flooding back.In fact, my first bullet struck the terrorist's leg, but the actor did not fall because he had not been seriously debilitated. That would have required repeated shots to the legs or a single shot to the head.My second, third and fourth shots had pierced passenger seats, without question injuring innocents. My fifth shot lodged in the terrorist's hip and, finally, sent him crashing face-down in the aisle.But what happened up front was tragic. My inability to quickly handle the situation behind me meant that the tall man's accomplice had stabbed two passengers and slit one man's throat, finishing up her rampage by dispatching me.Filled with appreciationNo one will be rushing to fly Air Marco, I thought in a glib moment, setting down the Beretta. But my realistic brush with in-flight terror also filled me with appreciation.For the dizzying decisions law enforcement personnel have to make in terrifying moments that paralyze most of us. For the tremendous precision required to stop a suicide-fueled terrorist who has no rules, while you are entrusted with saving lives while sticking with the letter of the law.And, most vividly, for the 40 heroes of United Flight 93 - sky marshals by fate - who rushed real terrorists with real knives armed with nothing but courage. http://www.usatoday.com/life/dcovthu.htm [This message has been edited by Josey1 (edited 01-11-2002).]
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