[url]http://www.cnn.com/2001/TRAVEL/NEWS/10/26/gen.air.marshals/index.html[/url]

Job-seekers high on air marshal openings
October 26, 2001 Posted: 7:33 PM EDT (2333 GMT)

The prime recruits for the Federal Air Marshal program already have some law enforcement experience, the FAA says.  

By Jeanne Meserve
CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Job-surfers have downloaded more than 150,000 air marshal applications since the Department of Transportation began advertising the positions on its Web site, Secretary of Transportation Norm Mineta said Friday.

The department's Web site has received 5.3 million hits, including some from an organization representing retired police officers that has offered volunteers to act as air marshals, Mineta said.

Speaking to the National Association of Counties' Homeland Security Task Force, Mineta advocated hiring pilots recently laid off by airlines and training them to be air marshals. If something happened in the cockpit, he reasoned, there would be someone on board who knew how to handle the plane.

The federal air marshal program, established in 1970, had more than 2,000 marshals in the sky per day at the height of its operation during the early 1970s. But the number had dwindled to 32 by September 11, when four hijacked airliners slammed into the World Trade Center, Pentagon and a field in western Pennsylvania.

The two-week air marshal training program is now graduating 50 people a day, Mineta said. The cut-off age for that program has been raised from 37 to 45.

Earlier this month, Congress overwhelmingly passed legislation calling for federal marshals on airplanes, increased cockpit security and hijack training for pilots.