US Air Marshals Need Better Risk Strategy to Defend Airliners

The US Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) needs to improve its risk assessment strategy in effectively deploying armed marshals to prevent terror attacks and attempted takeovers of US airliners, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report said.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The FAMS does not consider risk when initially dividing its annual resources between domestic and international flights, according to the GAO.

"GAO identified three ways FAMS could better incorporate risk into its deployment decisions, in accordance with Department of Homeland Security [DHS] and TSA [Transportation Security Administration] risk management policy and guidance," the report stated on Tuesday.

"[B]ecause this model does not account for risk, FAMS cannot ensure it is devoting its resources to the highest risk flights overall," the report warned.

Moreover, the FAMS does not document rationales for its international deployment decisions because it has not identified a need to do so, the GAO also pointed out.

However, without documentation of the basis for these decisions, neither FAMS nor an external party can effectively oversee these decisions, the GAO concluded.