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UK may put sky marshals on flights
LONDON, England -- Britain is considering placing armed undercover police officers on board passenger flights to prevent terrorist hijackings. UK Home Secretary David Blunkett and Transport Secretary Alistair Darling are considering proposals to place the so-called sky marshals on major airlines, a government spokeswoman confirmed on Sunday. The idea was one of the recommendations in a report published last month by former opposition Conservative minister Sir John Wheeler. The proposal comes in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, when hijackers overpowered cabin crew and pilots before crashing the planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. A Home Office spokeswoman told the Press Association: "The idea of sky marshals is one of the recommendations of the Wheeler report. "Whilst it is an option, no decision has been taken on it yet." A spokeswoman for British Airways said the airline was already "working closely" with the government on the proposal. "If armed police officers were to be introduced on U.K. aircraft by the government, we would need complete confidence that it would not compromise the overall safety of the aircraft," the spokeswoman told the Associated Press. Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the founder of budget airline easyJet, was skeptical of the plan and said it would be better for passengers and crew to overpower any hijackers. He told the BBC's Breakfast With Frost programme on Sunday: "It's too late to expect, until the terrorists are on the plane or very close to it, to do something about it. "I am a bit worried about guns on planes. It's the last place you want guns. What if they are overpowered, what if they fall in the wrong hands? A spokesman for the Transport Department told Reuters: "A wide range of security measures have been considered since September 11, and sky marshals is one of them. "It hasn't been ruled in, but it hasn't been ruled out either. No date has been set for a decision." Following September 11, airline companies in Britain and Germany led a review of cabin security, with Virgin Atlantic among the first to fit armour plating on cockpit doors in its 30 jets. British Airways also reviewed its security measures and said it was reinforcing cockpit door exteriors to stop intruders reaching the flight deck on all its 340 planes. In Germany, Lufthansa AG strengthened cockpit doors on its long-haul planes. The British government has already taken measures to tighten security on airlines and at airports, including providing more secure perimeter fencing and better policing in and around airports. The practice of providing sky marshals is already common in other parts of the world. Last year, Air France said specially trained security agents would be introduced on some of its flights. Israeli airline El Al already has security personnel on board and cockpits which can be isolated from the rest of the aircraft. In April this year, a U.S. Airways flight bound for Orlando, Florida, was sent back to Philadelphia after a sky marshal on board reported that passengers were engaged in some unspecified "suspicious activity," an FBI spokeswoman said. U.S. airline Mesa introduced a scheme last November to train its pilots to carry and use non-lethal stun guns, including Taser brand stun guns, which fire a wired dart at targets 15 feet away and administer a high voltage shock to render victims helpless. Australia spends £500 million a year on airline security, including placing armed guards on random domestic flights. The marshals travel in plainclothes and in secret and carry low-velocity weapons that can fire without penetrating an airliner's fuselage.
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