Narrative:

During regular passenger boarding; I was approached by a male passenger who identified himself as a fam. I discretely escorted him to the flight deck and introduced him to the captain. The captain and I verified the lead fam's credentials at which time the lead fam informed us of his seat assignment and the seat assignment of his partner who had yet to board the aircraft. It was my understanding that the fams were scheduled to sit in seats 2A and 5B. However; by the time the second fam boarded the aircraft; some of the first class passengers had taken it upon themselves to change seats. Seats 5A and 5B were now occupied by a couple who were traveling together. The passenger occupying seat 5B asked the late boarding fam if he would consider taking seat 6A instead. The fam agreed. I informed the captain about the seat change. Passenger boarding continued. As we approached our scheduled departure time; the captain and I were expecting the agents to provide us with duplicate boarding passes to confirm the presence of the fams and to confirm the fams' seat assignments. Just prior to door closure; the agents failed to deliver the duplicate boarding passes. I discretely asked the agent who was tasked with closing the aircraft door if she was aware that fams were on board. She speculated that the gate agent responsible for controlling the departure had simply failed to notify her. Since the captain and I were aware of the fams' presence and we were told by customer service that there were no other pcfas on board; we allowed the door to be closed. As I reviewed the passenger manifest while awaiting pushback from the gate; I was surprised to see that gate agent had notated 'fam' next to the air marshals' names on the first class manifest! I informed the other flight attendants of the fams' seat assignments and then secured the manifest. The flight progressed without further incident. It is my understanding that the captain is planning to submit a report about this incident at his first opportunity. In my opinion; our current procedure which relies solely on the gate agent to notify the flight crew about the presence of fams is severely flawed. Most customer service representatives are task saturated at the time of departure. Furthermore; because customer service representatives do not travel with the aircraft and have no vested interest in knowing where armed passengers are seated on board; they may be inclined to inadvertently assign a relatively low priority to consistent crew member notification. Please feel free to contact me if you have any additional questions or need further clarification.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Flight Attendant reported significant deviations from procedure when boarding FAMs; resulting in potential identity and location information. The Reporter recommended that boarding agents not bear responsibility for FAM paperwork.

Narrative: During regular passenger boarding; I was approached by a male passenger who identified himself as a FAM. I discretely escorted him to the flight deck and introduced him to the Captain. The Captain and I verified the Lead FAM's credentials at which time the Lead FAM informed us of his seat assignment and the seat assignment of his partner who had yet to board the aircraft. It was my understanding that the FAMs were scheduled to sit in seats 2A and 5B. However; by the time the second FAM boarded the aircraft; some of the first class passengers had taken it upon themselves to change seats. Seats 5A and 5B were now occupied by a couple who were traveling together. The passenger occupying seat 5B asked the late boarding FAM if he would consider taking seat 6A instead. The FAM agreed. I informed the Captain about the seat change. Passenger boarding continued. As we approached our scheduled departure time; the Captain and I were expecting the agents to provide us with duplicate boarding passes to confirm the presence of the FAMs and to confirm the FAMs' seat assignments. Just prior to door closure; the agents failed to deliver the duplicate boarding passes. I discretely asked the agent who was tasked with closing the aircraft door if she was aware that FAMs were on board. She speculated that the gate agent responsible for controlling the departure had simply failed to notify her. Since the Captain and I were aware of the FAMs' presence and we were told by Customer Service that there were no other PCFAs on board; we allowed the door to be closed. As I reviewed the passenger manifest while awaiting pushback from the gate; I was surprised to see that Gate Agent had notated 'FAM' next to the Air Marshals' names on the first class manifest! I informed the other Flight Attendants of the FAMs' seat assignments and then secured the manifest. The flight progressed without further incident. It is my understanding that the Captain is planning to submit a report about this incident at his first opportunity. In my opinion; our current procedure which relies solely on the gate agent to notify the flight crew about the presence of FAMs is severely flawed. Most customer service representatives are task saturated at the time of departure. Furthermore; because customer service representatives do not travel with the aircraft and have no vested interest in knowing where armed passengers are seated on board; they may be inclined to inadvertently assign a relatively low priority to consistent crew member notification. Please feel free to contact me if you have any additional questions or need further clarification.

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.