Narrative:

I have had a recurring problem with gate personnel following a procedure which is found in our operations manual. Specifically it states that customer services will notify the captain or first office that a fam team will be boarding. Today we operated a flight that was downsized from a larger aircraft due to a mechanical problem with that larger aircraft. The flight attendant was one of the original crew members; but neither pilot was part of the original crew. The gate agent was fully aware of this. The flight attendant notified me while we were preparing the aircraft that a fam team had boarded the original flight in another terminal; and might be on board. She had asked the gate agent if this would be the case; and she responded that she did not know. I told our flight attendant to notify me if she recognized the fam team members when they boarded; and told her that we could expect to be briefed by the gate agent if they were to be boarded (per the ops manual). We received no notice of the fam team from customer service or the gate agent; and the team boarded. In a discreet manner I summoned a customer service supervisor to the cockpit and discussed the situation. He confirmed that the fam team was supposed to be on board and after discussing it with the gate agent over the radio; told us that she insisted that she had briefed all 3 crew members. In fact she had not briefed the two pilots at all; and had only stated to the flight attendant that she did not know. I believe that her inability to own up to her mistakes truthfully puts in question her ability to maintain the security of her gate. In the end we departed after I had been assured by the customer service agent in the cockpit that the fam team was supposed to be there. My concern is that the gate agent; and many other gate agents are taking this procedure lightly; or don't realize it exists. While this has been my first encounter with a fam team in a few months; I regularly have armed leos entering the cockpit to introduce themselves to me without ever hearing about it first from the gate. In the case of non-fam leos the operations manual states that the gate agent will verbally notify the captain prior to boarding a leo. In these cases I have simply reminded the gate agents of the procedure. I fear that the lax utilization of these procedures will lead to an in-flight misunderstanding when armed fam teams discover unexpected armed leos and vice versa. If the captain is not even aware of the presence of these officers; how do we know that the various leos are aware of each others presence?

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An Air Carrier Captain reported he was not properly informed by the gate agent of the presence of armed law enforcement personnel on his flight.

Narrative: I have had a recurring problem with gate personnel following a procedure which is found in our Operations Manual. Specifically it states that Customer Services will notify the Captain or First Office that a FAM team will be boarding. Today we operated a flight that was downsized from a larger aircraft due to a mechanical problem with that larger aircraft. The Flight Attendant was one of the original crew members; but neither pilot was part of the original crew. The gate agent was fully aware of this. The Flight Attendant notified me while we were preparing the aircraft that a FAM team had boarded the original flight in another terminal; and might be on board. She had asked the gate agent if this would be the case; and she responded that she did not know. I told our flight attendant to notify me if she recognized the FAM team members when they boarded; and told her that we could expect to be briefed by the gate agent if they were to be boarded (per the ops manual). We received no notice of the FAM team from Customer Service or the gate agent; and the team boarded. In a discreet manner I summoned a Customer Service Supervisor to the cockpit and discussed the situation. He confirmed that the FAM team was supposed to be on board and after discussing it with the gate agent over the radio; told us that she insisted that she had briefed all 3 crew members. In fact she had not briefed the two pilots at all; and had only stated to the flight attendant that she did not know. I believe that her inability to own up to her mistakes truthfully puts in question her ability to maintain the security of her gate. In the end we departed after I had been assured by the Customer Service agent in the cockpit that the FAM team was supposed to be there. My concern is that the gate agent; and many other gate agents are taking this procedure lightly; or don't realize it exists. While this has been my first encounter with a FAM team in a few months; I regularly have armed LEOs entering the cockpit to introduce themselves to me without ever hearing about it first from the gate. In the case of non-FAM LEOs the Operations Manual states that the gate agent will verbally notify the Captain prior to boarding a LEO. In these cases I have simply reminded the gate agents of the procedure. I fear that the lax utilization of these procedures will lead to an in-flight misunderstanding when armed FAM teams discover unexpected armed LEOs and vice versa. If the Captain is not even aware of the presence of these officers; how do we know that the various LEOs are aware of each others presence?

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.