Sky marshals may be grounded soon

Sky marshals could soon be grounded if some private airlines keep dawdling over the former's maintenance.

Sky marshals are undercover law agents on board flights to counter hijackings. A sky marshal's job is to blend in with fellow passengers and is specifically trained in terrorist behaviour recognition, aircraft specific tactics and close quarters defence.

The National Aviation Company of India Ltd (Nacil), which operates Air India, has threatened to pull out of the arrangements, unless private airlines comply with their part of the agreement and pay up their dues.

In 2001, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) asked all airlines to have sky marshals on board. All these years, Air India has been bearing the expenses of the sky marshals and the other airlines are in turn supposed to reimburse Air India for the expenses.

Air India has been the single point contact for the NSG, which provides sky marshals, for better co-ordination.

Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines are believed to have the largest amounts due by virtue of operating more number of flights than other private airlines.

Earlier, Nacil complained to the home ministry about private airlines not paying their dues, as decided earlier, to it. The home ministry then asked the civil aviation ministry to sort out the matter.

In a meeting convened by the civil aviation ministry, all airlines agreed to pay the amount due to Air India.

A senior official at the ministry had said, "Airlines raised the issue of some disputed transactions with Air India. However, it was then decided that all undisputed transactions should be settled and then the disputed ones can be looked at."

However, Air India is yet to receive the dues from some of the airlines.

Kingfisher Airlines said, "BCAS had recently called a meeting of all airlines to discuss this subject and while Air India did raise an invoice, it did not do so in time and therefore, this invoice could not be booked in our system. This is being done now and Air India will be provided a payment plan for the same. We would like to clarify that there is no indication or message that the sky marshals will be pulled out for this reason."

A spokesperson at Air India confirmed the development, but did not share further details. Jet Airways officials could not be reached for comment.

Globally, airlines such as the Israeli airline, El Al Israel Airlines Ltd provide sky marshals on all its flights, while government agencies provide sky marshals in the US, UK and Germany.