Without a uniform and like one more passenger: this is how the Civil Guard unit that evaluates the terrorist risk on planes works

Internationally known as Air Marshalls, they are the last line of defense for civil aviation Anonymity and discretion are the key to their success: they don’t wear a uniform and sit on the plane like any other passenger They have already been deployed on 20 flights: this This elite unit must assess the risks of the terrorist threat and identify the scenarios and routes to protect. Its mission is to detect anomalous behavior and the treatment of conflicting passengers. Internationally they are known as ‘Air Marshalls’, although in Spain their official name is the National Unit of Flight Safety Escorts (Unesev). It is the first time that this police capability has been deployed on aircraft. Its creation was constituted on the occasion of the last NATO summit, last June. Agents of the Civil Guard will be in charge of carrying it out. They don’t wear a uniform. Anonymity and discretion are the key to your success. Like any other passenger, they board and take their seat on the plane. In the Anglo-Saxon world, it is often said that they constitute the last line of defense for civil aviation. To join this unit, the agents have had to pass a course at the Logroño Special Training Center, including self-defense and shooting in tubular environments. Also a demanding training in operational intervention tactics, as well as knowledge of the aeronautical environment -particularly security elements-, behavior analysis, negotiation or first aid. They need to have a good level of English. This training is completed by air simulators, so that they can land the aircraft following control instructions. The great momentum of the Air Marshall at the international level dates back to 9/11. After the 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, some countries particularly threatened by jihadist terrorism decided to develop new capabilities to strengthen the security of their aircraft. Since then, security agencies from the United States, Germany or Israel have consolidated these services and have learned to assess the risks of the terrorist threat, in order to identify scenarios and air routes to protect. The first deployment of security escorts in a Spanish domestic flight took place on June 13 on the Madrid-Bilbao route. The first international service, on June 27, on the Madrid-Berlin route and the first deployment on board an intercontinental flight, on October 4, on an aircraft bound for JFK airport in New York. To date, there are already 20 national and international flights in which the UNESEV of the Civil Guard has deployed the agents of a pioneering elite unit in Spain. Pioneers in Spain The UNESEV has been presented on the occasion of the meeting of the International Committee of Flight Safety Agents, which is being held in Palma de Mallorca from this Tuesday until next October 20. The Government Delegate in the Balearic Islands, Aina Calvo, highlighted that “greater security on flights arriving and departing from our islands will result in a better service for tourists who decide to visit us every year from all corners of the world”. The Canadian delegation chairs the committee, which also includes representatives from Germany, Australia, Austria, the Netherlands, India, Israel, the Czech Republic, Romania, Singapore, Switzerland, Vietnam and Spain. The Prüm Convention regulates the figure of ESVs in the European context and establishes the need to designate a National Contact Point. In Spain -in its capacity as responsible for both the control of weapons and the custody of airports- the Civil Guard has exercised this figure since 2004, as an exclusive authority. During the last five years, the airport units of the Madrid and Barcelona airports have coordinated and received an average of 7,500 ESV. According to Lieutenant General Pablo Salas, Deputy Operational Director of the Civil Guard: “it constitutes the culmination of a demanding training process” that has allowed us, for the first time in Spain, to provide flight security services on national flag aircraft, both on domestic and international routes.