AT least two Caribbean airlines, including Air Jamaica, yesterday indicated their willingness to comply with America's directive that it may order armed marshals be placed on commercial flights entering its airspace.

"Air Jamaica is in direct communication with the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority and the United States Transportation Security Administration. The airline will continue to work closely with the Jamaican and US authorities and will support and implement all measures aimed at maintaining and enhancing security and keeping our passengers safe," Air Jamaica said in a statement yesterday evening.

At the same time, Clint Williams, corporate communications manager at Trinidad and Tobago carrier, BWIA, told RJR News yesterday that it, too, would co-operate with the US.

This move, which saw the US making three emergency amendments to its air security regulations covering cargo and passenger planes as well as planes flying over its airspace, came into effect yesterday.

The US Homeland Security Department said the measure would further enhance security on commercial and cargo aircraft flying to, from and over the US.

The department said in a statement that the US would inform affected carriers, based on intelligence, that it wanted to have a law enforcement officer on a particular flight.

However, yesterday it remained unclear whether the on-board officer would come from the home country or the US.
Essentially, what this means is that if foreign airlines refuse to have an enforcement officer on board, they will be denied access to US airspace.

The Observer was unable to reach Jamaican government officials yesterday, but US secretary for homeland security, Tom Ridge, said that the US authorities have been in contact with governments around the world.

Orna Blum, public affairs officer at the United States Embassy in Jamaica, told the Observer that the US would not be issuing information on which countries or airlines would be asked to have law enforcement officers on board, because of security reasons.

"It's on a case by case basis and its not something that they usually advertise," she said.

"We are sure that through co-operation, such as what we are seeing with Air France, that we will be able to work very closely on this issue in a number of countries," added Blum.

The US directive comes a little more than a week after the US raised its terror level alert to orange. It also follows closely on the heels of last week's reports of possible attacks out of France, which led Air France to cancel six Paris flights into Los Angeles.

The US Department of Homeland Security raised the country's terror alert to the second highest level, fearing possible attacks from al-Qaeda during the festive season. The country also tightened security around commercial airlines within the US.

Britain, which is closely allied to the US over the war on terrorism, also announced Sunday that it had tightened security for trans-Atlanttic flights and indicated that it would possibly place armed sky marshals on some planes.

The US has tightened security and implemented a number of security measures since the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York City and Washington, when terrorists used hijacked planes as bombs to destroy the World Trade Centre and damage the Pentagon.

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