Welcome to the 'fight deck': Air marshals still updating their training 17 years after 9/11

Pay attention to the quiet woman sitting next to you on the plane who tells you she's on her way to a funeral. She might be packing a gun.

It's just one of the tricks Canada's air marshals, also known as in-flight security officers, employto keep chatty seat-mates at bay to protect their cover on a mission.

Almost two decades after the 9/11 attacks, Canada still offers a police service at over 10,000 metres in the air.

Practically everything about the Canadian Air Carrier Protective Program is a closely guarded secret, including how many officers the program trains every year.

But in a rare eventin the program's 17-year history, the RCMP recently liftedthe curtainon one of its most covert units as it evolves with the changing nature of terrorism.

The RCMPallowed journalists to visit the facility where Canada's most lethal frequent flyers come to train the "fight deck,"as they like to call it.

Eyes in the sky

It's easy to overlook the nondescriptOttawa-area warehouse that houses the program's national logistics centre. That's kind of the point.

Inside, officials sift through classified intelligence from Transport Canada, Public Safety and Canada's international defence partners including the intelligence agencies that make up the 'Five Eyes' alliance to identify high-risk flights.

If they can get an officer on one of those flights, they can try to avoid real-life trouble. Their training involves how to handle the hijacking scenarios that play out down the hall.

For security and tactical reasons,CBCagreed not to disclose theparticipatingofficers' names and faces following a recent demonstration of a training scenario. Media cameras weren't allowed into the training area, either.

The theatrics started in a fake airport lounge, complete with a ticket counter and a magazine stall, where "passengers" milled about while waiting to board. Some talked to each other about their upcoming trips and drifted towardthe magazine stall, while others sat silently.

Fake terrorists, real cops

Soon after the fake flight 'took off' (the officers work in an out-of-commission airplane parked in a hangar), the commotion started. A knife-wielding team barrelled towardthe cockpit from the back of the plane.

Within seconds, two officers jumped into action, calling out demands to the other passengers and firing their guns to bring the attackers to the ground.

Because these officers confrontarmed assailants in close quarters, there's a risk of a stray bullet hitting another passenger or tearing throughthe cockpit. If the officer loses control of the situation, a rogue shot couldturn the airplane into a missile.

It's preferable to de-escalate the situation, a critical area of training.

Citing security reasons, the RCMP won't say how many such real-life incidents their in-flight officers have stopped. Chances are good, though,that you've taken a flight with an undercover officer on board, said Supt. Janis Gray, the program's director.

Born in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, this team of specially-trained officers was assembled to foil terrorist attacks on civilian flights. While the goal remains the same stopping the bad guys the way they dothe work has changed since 2001.

"Terrorists threats to the commercial aviation industry, which is why we were actually originally created, have evolved and [they]have increased in scope and frequency," said Gray.

"Further threats to commercial aviation continue to evolve. We're talking about rapid deployment of weapons, devices more challenging to detect. Intelligence suggests that terrorist groups are instructing individuals on how to specifically defeat or circumvent airport or aircraft security measures."

New tactics, new training

The team members are picked from a pool of RCMP officers and given a month of training to become an in-flight officer. They are then re-certifiedthrough aweek's trainingtwice a year.

Since 2010, saidGray, officers have had to upgrade their training constantly. Everyin-flight officer is a cop, a bomb detector, a spy and a quasi-paramedica human Swiss Army knife.

Their brief goes beyond terrorism; officers are also trained to spot human traffickers and suspected cases of child exploitation. The trainingalsohas evolved to cover the possibility of a kidnapping in a foreign country.

"Their duties begin when they step off the curb at the airport," said Gray.

The training is intensive and covers hand-to-hand combat as well as firearms.One of the stops on the media tour of the training facilitywas a simple, stripped-down gym where a team of officers on their re-certification week werepaired off in sparring teams.

From the red blotches on the officers' arms, the knife training session had been going on for a while.

Almost half of their work is focused on mental preparedness, said one of the trainers. Officers have to learn to move instantly when a threat emerges to get pastthe shock of seeingan armed man sprint down the aisle and simply snapinto action. On an airplane, the trainer said,a broken bottle or stick can work as a "weapon of opportunity."

"Everyone has a plan until you get punched in the head," said the trainer, borrowing a line from Mike Tyson.

The training team has remodelled the grounded plane to includethe newer pod-style seats some carriers favour in first class. The chief trainer saidofficers need to be familiar with different aircraft layouts.

"Like anything, [air carriers'] crafts change and are modified and are adapting and we do as well, but we have a very good relationship and we work in concert with them," saidGray.

A training model for the world

The RCMP's training model is one of the most robust in the world, said Gray, and other countries have sent representatives to the Ottawa area centre to learn from it.

"Within the RCMP we have highly-trained police officers coming into the program to begin with and so our training supports or enhances that further, which makes us an attractive program to support other countries," she said.

Like most government programs, the Canadian Air Carrier Protective Program would like more money to expand. Its budget falls under the RCMP's protective policing umbrella.

And like the rest of the RCMP, the program faces ongoing pressure to boost itsdiversity.

In a group of about a dozen officers recently up for re-certification, only two were women. And almost all participants were Caucasian.

"Within the RCMP our program is taking very, I would say, structured steps to ensure we have a diverse group," Gray said, adding that a more diverse team helps its officers blend in with airport crowds.

"It enhances the program, it enhances the safety aspect, the covert aspect of the program, and making sure that it's representative of the Canadian travelling public."