Storyline: Fascinating stories reside at the interface of athletics and society. Here’s one–an unusual one, too–about Denzil Keelor, who’s an award-winning athletic administrator and an air marshal.
Air Marshal Denzil Keelor is the Trustee Emeritus and CEO of Special Olympics Bharat (SO Bharat), a National Sports Federation supported by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India. SO Bharat is accredited by the Special Olympics Inc. in the USA to carry out sports programs for persons with intellectual disabilities. Under his leadership since 2001 the program has 1.2 million athletes (persons with intellectual disabilities) registered and it runs across all the States and Union Territories of India, covering 679 districts.
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He earned recognition for gallantry and distinguished service of an exceptional order by receiving four Presidential Awards from four consecutive Presidents of India–Param Vishist Seva Medal (PVSM), Kirti Chakra (KC), Ati Vishist Seva Medal (AVSM) and Vir Chakra (VrC)–and four commendations from of the Chief of Air Staff. He is the highest decorated officer in the country. In 2004 he received an award from Special Olympics International for his leadership and efforts to reach out to over 450,000 Special Children.
The Sports Column has caught up with Keelor recently. Here are excerpts from the interview about his work as an air marshal.
Ravi: Was did your job entail as air marshal?
Raman: The mission was to detect and defeat hostile acts on board commercial air crafts and in airports as well. It’s really pretty involved, but it’s mostly learning detection techniques for airports and aircraft that will help us spot behavioral patterns that are characteristic of terrorists as based on past incidents. Whether it’s a hijacker or bombing, terrorists have employed certain tactics over decades so we’re basically looking to spot those kinds of indicators. We’re not supposed to racially profile, but it happens.
Ravi: What was the training be like and what things have you learned during training?
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Raman: First you go to the basic federal law enforcement academy so you learn sort of what a street cop in your local city would learn. When you get to phase two, you go to a Federal Aviation Administration property in New Jersey and you learn more of the aviation and aircraft specific type stuff. It’s like four months of training, not that long.
Ravi: Are there air marshals on every flight?
Raman: No. They kind of use a threat matrix, which more or less bases it off how much fuel an aircraft has, whether or not it’s a transcontinental flight. It’s the 9/11 type of mentality. Where is the aircraft going? Is there something on that specific flight path that could be used to fly into? You’re looking at flight path; you’re looking at what it’s flying over—like a nuclear facility. It’s risk-based.
Ravi: What was your scariest encounter as an air marshal?
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Raman: Having another air marshal tell me that he wouldn’t react if an incident happened on board. The biggest incident I was a part of was with a drunken guy who got physical. But the scariest thing was having one of your partners on a flight saying, “I wouldn’t even do anything if something happened.” He said it in casual conversation. The air marshal service has become a pretty big bureaucratic machine. Unfortunately you get a lot of people like that. A lot of them say, “Air marshals shouldn’t have guns,” that we should just have Tasers. There are just a lot of different personalities in the air marshal service, even though there may only be a few thousand air marshals—three or four thousand.
Ravi: How many marshals are on a flight?
Raman: For international, four. Those are big aircrafts so you want two people covering the cabin and two people covering the flight deck. Others have sometimes just two.
Ravi: We can understand there has been many a mystery during the course of time. Could you share your experiences in that regard?
Raman: You never really can be sure who you’re talking to or who’s overhearing your conversation. You don’t want anyone knowing you have a gun on an aircraft. If somebody gets a gun on an aircraft, and they know what to do with it, they can control the aircraft pretty easily. That’s the main reason. The flight crew knows we’re on board. But we act more or less like any other passenger. You don’t want to draw attention to yourself; you just want to look like a regular passenger. What we look for and what terrorists look for on an aircraft is contrast. So you don’t want to set yourself apart from other people on the aircraft.
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Ravi: On a neutral point we feel honoured about you for you get a chance to see many places on this planet. Did you get time to spend time in the places, before you step-in to your duty of flying?
Raman: Yeah, it depends. If you go from San Francisco to NY you’ll get an overnight and come back sometime in the morning. And then, internationally, you might get a day or day and a half. If it’s somewhere like Australia, you’ll get longer.
Ravi: We understand not everyone is perfect. And, as social animals, we are bound to make mistakes. Any such mistake in the air can lead to wretched calamity. Do marshals with considerable flying experience get hired again? Does the organization recruit trainee marshals?
Raman: Over history passengers or unarmed law enforcement officials have actually stopped the majority of bombing and hijacking attempts. There are air marshals on maybe a few hundred flights a day.
Ravi: What do you generally look for in a suspicious person’s behaviour?
Raman: Mostly it’s just stress-type stuff. People start getting nervous twitches or habits, putting hands in and out of pockets, looking all around, and not wanting to get close to a law enforcement officer. Flustered activity. If someone’s wearing a big thick coat and it’s hot on the plane and he’s sweating; or if someone starts chanting Allahu Akbar and he’s super clean-shaven and he’s got cologne on, these are things that terrorists have been known to do.
Ravi: Could you take us through the training period and its tongue sagging tired restlessness?
Raman: First you go to the basic federal law enforcement academy so you learn sort of what a street cop in your local city would learn. When you get to the next phase you go to a Federal Aviation Administration property in New Jersey and you learn more of the aviation and aircraft specific type stuff. It’s like four months of training.
Ravi: Are there air marshals on every flight?
Courtesy: AMBA
Raman: No. They kind of use a threat matrix, which more or less bases it off how much fuel an aircraft has and whether or not it’s a transcontinental flight. It’s the 9/11 type of mentality. Where is the aircraft going? Is there something on that specific flight path that could be used to fly into? You’re looking at flight path; and you’re looking at what it’s flying over, like a nuclear facility. It’s risk-based.
Ravi: Did you, ever come across an inebriated person? If so, could you describe the way you’ve successfully handled him/her?
Raman: Yeah, this guy kept going to the back, serving himself drinks when the flight attendants weren’t there, He then jumped on a passenger and the lady started screaming, We had to do something. We cuffed the guy and he eventually started screaming, trying to work his way out of cuffs, so we cuffed him tighter. He and his partner had been drinking and taking Ambien. Then the second guy goes in the back and starts waking people up saying, “My buddy needs an attorney, these Feds have him.” Then he got into a squabble with another flight attendant, so the attendant says, “This guy’s interfering with my duties,” so we’re like, that’s a felony.
Ravi: In the modern-day world, it’s pretty common; we come across many a drunken passenger. Is it a myth, or does this happen on weekly basis, if not on a daily basis?
Raman: Usually you wouldn’t want to. That’s when things can go wrong because that can be a ruse, like, I’m gonna act like a drunk guy so I can see where the security people are, what their reaction is, draw people away from a certain area so I can hijack the aircraft or set up a bomb. So you don’t want to get involved. The majority of guys will probably get involved, though, it’s a boring job. You kind of want to get involved.
Ravi: How do you protect your identity?
Raman: We have a cover story. I said I was a medical researcher. I flew with this one woman twice and my story held up. I said my wife works at an embassy, that kind of thing.
Ravi: Thank you for sharing your fascinating story!
