Sky Marshals to lose their cushy first-class seats?

Sky Marshals like to fly first class — that’s where the cockpit is, after all. Airlines hate it when Sky Marshals fly first: they have to give them the seat, even if it means bumping some loyal customer who’s paid thousands for her ticket back to coach — and the airlines aren’t allowed to tell the bump-ee why she’s not getting a warm dish of pecans and a linen napkin for her gin and tonic.

And they almost always fly first class–something some airlines would like to change. With cockpit doors fortified and a history of attackers choosing coach seats, some airline executives and security experts question whether the first-class practice is really necessary–or even a good idea. It could weaken security by isolating marshals or making them easier for terrorists to identify, airline executives say.

With more threats in the coach cabin now, first-class clustering may not make as much security sense. Security experts say bombers are a bigger threat today than knife-wielding attackers trying to get through secure cockpit doors, and Transportation Security Administration checkpoints are heavily focused on explosives, whether hidden in shoes, liquids or under clothes. Some believe bombers try to target areas over the wing–a structurally critical location and also the site of fuel storage–to cause the most damage to the aircraft.

Marshals object to this plan on the grounds that “It’s based on threat and tactical doctrines.” Of course, the leg-room is nice, too.

Airlines Want to Bump Air Marshals to Coach

(via Schneier)

(Image: Thai First Class Seat (1A), a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from richardmoross’s photostream)