Word: fam
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...This week, TIME conducted a detailed interview with the lead FAM on board Flight 327, one of the thousands of covert, armed government agents who patrol the skies. The man, who authorities did not allow to be identified by name, is 35 years old and worked previously for another federal law enforcement agency. In that job, he often dealt with foreign citizens...
...FAM, who says for security reasons cannot say exactly where he was sitting, was aware of the group of Middle Eastern men from the beginning of the flight. About 25 minutes after takeoff, a flight attendant discreetly told the FAM that she thought the men were "acting suspiciously" and were congregating near one of the lavatories in the back of the plane. He alerted another marshal on the plane and also told the flight attendant to notify the captain. A short while later, the FAM asked the flight crew member to get physical descriptions of the men and their seat...
...watched the men and saw nothing out of the ordinary. In a long, single aisle plane like the Boeing 757 that was carrying Flight 327, there are often many people standing or moving around. That was the case on this flight, says the FAM, who has flown hundreds of missions in his two and half years on the job. The FAM never saw - nor was he told - of any example of the men interfering with the flight crew (which is a federal crime). He never saw any activity that caused him to ask the pilots to turn on the seat...
...There was, the marshal admits, one incident that did concern him: when one of the group came from the back of the plane forward to use the lavatory in First Class. The FAM timed the man, dressed in a green jumpsuit with Arabic writing on it; he stayed about ten minutes in the toilet. Immediately after the man returned to the back to the plane, the FAM searched the washroom and found nothing. In contrast to Jacobsen's version, the FAM said at no time did any people congregate near the First Class bathroom...
...When the flight was an hour from landing in Los Angeles, the FAM informed his superiors and, as is standard procedure, suggested they meet the plane to interview the men. He told the flight attendant to ask the pilot to alert the authorities at Los Angeles International Airport. That was why the flight was met by federal agents and why the men were interviewed but then allowed to leave in time to make their concert. The FAM's take? "I understand why the passenger felt some anxiety about activity on Flight 327," he says. "But that kind of activity...