Sky marshals are not a completely new phenomenon and have been used in the United States for over 40 years. Concerned about the growing threat of aircraft hijacking (or skyjacking, a blend of sky and hijacking coined in the early sixties), President John F. Kennedy set up the Sky Marshal Program in 1961. Subsequent presidents boosted the number of sky marshals, including Richard Nixon during the seventies and Ronald Reagan in the eighties, in the aftermath of a serious hijacking (TWA flight 847) in June 1985. But when terrorists started bombing aircraft rather than hijacking them, attention turned to security on the ground, and the number of sky marshals steadily declined – until the terrorist attacks of September 2001.

Sky marshals are not a completely new phenomenon and have been used in the United States for over 40 years. Concerned about the growing threat of aircraft hijacking (or skyjacking, a blend of sky and hijacking coined in the early sixties), President John F. Kennedy set up the Sky Marshal Program in 1961. Subsequent presidents boosted the number of sky marshals, including Richard Nixon during the seventies and Ronald Reagan in the eighties, in the aftermath of a serious hijacking (TWA flight 847) in June 1985. But when terrorists started bombing aircraft rather than hijacking them, attention turned to security on the ground, and the number of sky marshals steadily declined – until the terrorist attacks of September 2001.