Since 9/11, air travel has been under the safety and security microscope. The Air Marshal agents went from a paltry staff of 33 to over 3000. The annual budget of the Transportation Safety Administration grew from $4.4 million dollars to $786 million dollars. As you can imagine, with great growth comes great responsibility and sometimes even greater headaches.

USA Today recently reported that Air Traffic Marshals have been riddled with crime amongst their own ranks.

Since 9/11, more than three dozen federal air marshals have been charged with crimes, and hundreds more have been accused of misconduct, an investigation by ProPublica, a non-profit journalism organization, has found.Since 9/11, air marshals have taken bribes, committed bank fraud, hired an escort while on layover and doctored hotel receipts to pad expenses, records show. They’ve been found sleeping on planes and lost the travel documents of U.S. diplomats while on a whiskey-tasting trip in Scotland.

In reading the story from USA Today, you really start to think that Air Marshals are really out-of-line and have some serious issues. However, when you are looking at a staff of 3 to 4 thousand employees, you will find that these type of Human Resource issues are a common occurrence and not just isolated to Air Marshals.

So.. should these kind of antics make passengers feel any less safe during air travel? Have any of our readers ever encountered an out-of-line Air Marshal? Anyone know an Air Marshal?