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Originally Posted by JustSomeGuy
Had an interesting event occur during a flight I was on a couple of weeks ago I'd like to hear your opinion on.
I'm flying from SAN-CLT and about halfway into the flight I stand up from my aisle seat to let the two women sitting next to me up to go to the lavatory. While they are up, a lady sitting in the row behind me (happens to be a co-worker) taps me on the shoulder and she is holding a full magazine of .45 hollow points. Apparently, when the women got up, this fell down from the seat and landed on the ground in front of her. Co-worker ends up hitting the flight attendant call button and one of them comes over. When co-worker shows her the magazine the FA doesn't look very surprised, says thanks for letting me know, and just drops the magazine in her little fanny pack thing.
A few minutes later the two women come back from the lavatory and sit down. About a minute after that, a different FA walks over and says to the lady in the middle of my row, Ms so-and-so can I speak to you in the galley for a minute. They get up and walk away and she comes back 2 minutes later. About another minute passes and the second FA walks by again and asks the middle seat, is there anything else I can help you with? (This seemed like an awful acting job to me) She says no and flight continues normally.
So was I definitely sitting next to air marshal? Do the FAs know when an air marshal is on the flight and who they are?
I'm not sure it's illegal to carry ammunition on the plane, but considering the casual reaction of the FA, it seems likely that the passenger in question was known to be carrying.
This was not necessarily an air marshal. It could have been any law enforcement officer (LEO). Regardless of whether it was a LEO or an air marshal, the entire crew would know of their presence on board. Unless things are rushed, the air marshals introduce themselves to the crew. But even if there's not a face-to-face meeting, we always know their seat numbers.
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Originally Posted by cap217
Also interested in a response to this. And if/when a Marshall is present, why? Is it random or do they consider something abnormal about the flight?
Air marshals are randomly placed on flights but they can also be specifically assigned to a flight if there is a reason for heightened security. You just never know.