Behind the Scenes With the Air Marshals

July 8, 2004 -- One morning in May at New York City's JFK airport, John was trying to look like any other traveler. But John wasn't just a regular traveler. He and his team were planning to board a commercial airliner, fully armed and looking for trouble.

They weren't terrorists. Quite the opposite: John and his three partners are federal air marshals, the government's first defense against any crimes in the skies.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the air marshal operation has expanded exponentially. On that tragic day, there were only 33 of them.

Now there are thousands of federal air marshals — FAMs for short — and they fly more missions in one month than they did in the entire history of the program, before those attacks.

The program remains very secretive, in part to ensure its effectiveness. Nightline got an inside look at its operation — with the agreement that the marshals' last names be withheld and their faces be concealed.

Watch Nightline tonight at 11:35 p.m. ET.

A Simple Mission

At the airport, John identified himself to the ticket agent and got his assigned seat for a trip to Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Hours before the flight took off, he was already at work.

"I examine each and every person that I come in contact with," he told Nightline. "After two years of flying with the public, I have a good sense of what normal passenger activity is."

John, 38, has had 10 years of law enforcement experience with the National Park Service. His partners that day were Rick, 41, who has spent 17 years as a Dallas police officer; Marcus, 26, a former investigator for a New York prosecutor; and Annabelle, 26, formerly with the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

They all joined up shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks. Nearly all air marshals have a law enforcement or military background.

Annabelle outlined her responsibility succinctly: "To make sure that the plane gets down on the ground with everybody in it, including me!"

Alone in the Air

Much of a federal air marshal's training is designed to prevent a 9/11-style attack from ever happening again.

The four marshals Nightline followed did most of their training in a cabin mockup built inside a nondescript office building outside Newark, N.J. They are required to drill there every month.

Trainer Eric Remmick provides specialized training in close-quarters combat, preparing marshals for scenarios in which they may face passengers with a knife or a gun.

"We have to create good fighters, but then adapt them to the plane," he said.

In the rush to hire federal air marshals after 9/11, most were deployed with just a few weeks of training. Now, in Atlantic City, N.J., marshals go through what one instructors calls a "finishing school."

In four weeks of intensive work, the marshals learn defense tactics as well as marksmanship. They are taught to shoot their standard-issue .357 Magnums with deadly accuracy on a crowded plane. Their standards for marksmanship are the highest in federal law enforcement.

The marshals are even taught the basics of flying a plane, in case they need to take over the aircraft from an incapacitated pilot.

"I'm totally prepared for any situation that happens, because it's you and your partner up there at 30,000 feet. No backup. You've got to handle it," said Rick.

Wait, Watch and Blend In

On the day that Nightline followed the team, John got on the plane first, boarding through the back door before the passengers.

Once aboard, he identified himself to the crew, telling them where he and his partners would be sitting, and that they were there for the flight's protection. He asked the crew to notify them if they saw anything unusual.

If there is time before the other passengers board, John likes to check for hidden weapons in the dozens of potential hiding places: in the paper towel dispenser in the bathroom, in the luggage bins, under the seats or inside a seat back.

The rest of John's team boarded the plane with the other passengers. Air marshals have been criticized for being easy to spot, but John says he changes his appearance with each flight, and tries to blend in with the type of passengers who will be on board. "I use my closet well," he said.

Annabelle said a passenger once told her he thought there was no such thing as the Air Marshal Service, that "he's constantly looking around and that they're never here. And I was sitting right next to him."

Once in the air, the marshals' job is to watch, wait and blend in — to look busy, but stay alert. The main challenge is fighting boredom.

"I always play through your mind, you know, it could happen this day," Marcus said. "You know, a terrorist attack could happen on my aircraft this day."

Using Resources Carefully

While there are many more air marshals in the skies today than before the Sept. 11 attacks, they still only cover a fraction of domestic and international flights.

Analysts at the marshals' new command center outside Washington sift through intelligence to determine which flights they should be on.

Thomas Quinn, the director of the Federal Air Marshal Service, said the command center takes into account "impact locations, aircraft vulnerabilities, intelligence and threat."

Priority goes to larger planes because they carry more fuel. The analysts also pay attention to flights in and out of cities that have been targets before, like Washington, New York and Los Angeles.

Air marshals have reported 4,600 suspicious incidents to the command center since the Sept. 11 attacks, and made 28 arrests — mostly of unruly passengers. They have arrested no terrorists to date.

‘We’re Ready’

Air marshals fly 80 hours a month, and say it can be exhausting. Every year, about 7 percent of them leave the job and the $70,000 annual salary. Because of budget cutbacks, they are not currently being replaced.

They worry that government and financial support for the program will wane as more time passes with no terrorist attacks.

"We have to be there, because the day that we're not is the day that they try again," Annabelle said. "I think the American public knows that now, and I don't think we want to risk another 3,000 lives. It's not worth it."

What if terrorists attack again? "We're ready," John said. "Not only are we ready, but we're waiting. They will lose and they will be brought to justice. "