Sky Marshals in Australia
Their cost-effectiveness is being debated:
They’ve cost the taxpayer $106 million so far, they travel in business class, and over the past four years Australia’s armed air marshals have had to act only once—subduing a 68-year-old man who produced a small knife on a flight from Sydney to Cairns in 2003.
I have not seen any similar cost analysis from the United States.
MrAtoz • March 8, 2007 8:01 AM
I’ve always thought that the Air Marshal program actually creates an additional risk — they bring weapons onto airplanes. Part of the assessment of whether the program is worth it or not should also take into consideration that added risk. I think that there’s got to be a way to exploit the Air Marshal’s exemption from the aircraft weapons ban.