In a previous installment, I shared my experience flying within EgyptAir. I’ve flown with EgyptAir many times over the years, and in this post I wanted to discuss something I’ve long been curious about with the airline.
EgyptAir’s abundant security officers
In the United States we have federal air marshals, who are undercover, and are on a tiny percentage of commercial flights. EgyptAir takes this concept to the next level. The airline has security officers, as they’re called, and they’re extremely common. I’ve seen them on a majority of my EgyptAir flights over the years.
I’m not trying to bust anyone’s cover here, as EgyptAir’s security officers aren’t undercover, but instead they wear uniforms and have badges. Just to use the Munich to Cairo flight that I took on EgyptAir as an example, there were four security officers onboard, with two of them seated immediately behind me in business class, one seated at the front of business class, and one seated in economy.
They didn’t have any sort of obvious duties during the flight. They chatted with one another, they ate meals, they took naps, they farted constantly (which I wish I didn’t know, but…). They didn’t engage with passengers in any way.
They were also totally chill. For example, I take a ton of pictures when I fly, and they didn’t seem at all concerned by that, which I appreciated.
Does anyone understand the logic?
EgyptAir’s approach to onboard security officers just puzzles the heck out of me. EgyptAir isn’t the only airline with a version of air marshals, but I find the execution to be the strangest, as the airline seems to have the most, and they seem to do the least.
For example, years ago I remember flying with Royal Jordanian from Cairo to Amman, and there was a security officer onboard who patted down each passenger as they boarded, and searched their bags. Okay, I can kind of see merit to that, as it adds a layer of protection. But in the case of EgyptAir, I’ve never seen the security officers do anything.
All kinds of questions come to mind (which no one has to answer, but curiosity is getting the best of me):
- What has to happen for them to jump into action? Would they get involved with a basic inflight disturbance, or does it have to be more serious than that?
- If they are the “last line of defense,” wouldn’t it make more sense for these security officers to be undercover, rather than in uniform? Are they armed?
- Are these highly trained professionals with background in intelligence, are they hired with no experience, or somewhere in the middle?
- I get that labor is pretty cheap in Egypt, but who is funding this, and is this some government requirement, an airline choice, or I suppose that’s all the same, really?
- Wouldn’t it make more sense for these security officers to be assigned routes that are ostensibly higher risk than Munich to Cairo in terms of what could happen in the cabin?
- Given EgyptAir’s safety record, wouldn’t it make more sense to have at least one of these security officers in the cockpit, as EgyptAir’s third most recent crash was a pilot suicide, and most recent crash was due to a pilot smoking in the cockpit (and that flight had three security officers onboard)?
Bottom line
You’ll find security officers on many EgyptAir flights. They’re in uniform, there are typically multiple of them, and they just chill out the entire time. I’ve long been confused by what purpose they serve, as they’re different than the air marshals you’ll find in most other countries. They’re not undercover and don’t blend in, and at the same time, they don’t actually perform any duties.
Has anyone else noticed EgyptAir’s security officers, and/or have any insights?
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