Sky marshals for South Indian flights

Express News

Bangalore, 31 March 2010: Following the recent detection of a crude explosive device onboard a Bangalore-Thiruvananthapuram Kingfisher flight, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) has issued orders to deploy sky marshals on board flights operating between and from south Indian cities, airline sources revealed.

Sky marshals are undercover security officers who travel on board commercial aircraft in plain clothes to counter hijacking and other threats.

After the Kingfisher flight scare, the BCAS had already issued new guidelines to all airlines and security agencies to beef up security surveillance and anti-sabotage checks at south Indian airports, especially high risk targets like Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Airlines sources said that BCAS has issued a new order to further increase security onboard flights in south India by deploying sky marshals on routes considered high on the terror radar.

“Deployment of sky marshals onboard flights is confidential and based on the security requirements of particular routes. Flights operating on a few routes between south Indian cities could have them onboard the aircraft,” a security official said.

“It (the deployment) is a carefully chalked out affair. To keep up the surprise element, the sky marshals travel along with passengers,” an official said.

India deploys sky marshals at all times, on sensitive routes like Delhi/ Mumbai-Srinagar, Delhi-Amritsar, the North-East and on international flights between Indian cities and the US and UK.

Recently, British intelligence reports indicated that Al-Qaeda was planning to use women suicide bombers with breast implants packed with explosives to blow up aircraft.