US Transportation Security Needs to Improve Training for Air Marshals on Planes

The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) needs to reform and improve its training procedures for marshals who fly on airliners to prevent hijackings and other terror attacks, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — "[O]pportunities exist to obtain more feedback from air marshals on whether the training courses they must take met their needs," the report stated.

The Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) Office of Training and Development (OTD) does not use its surveys to obtain feedback from incumbent air marshals on the effectiveness of their annual recurrent training courses, the GAO noted.

"Until OTD takes steps to achieve sufficient response rates, OTD cannot be reasonably assured that the feedback it receives represents the full spectrum of views held by air marshals," the report said.

The Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) does not have complete and timely data on the extent to which air marshals have completed their recurrent training, the GAO observed.