Narrative:

About 3/4 of the way through the flight I discovered we had two fams (federal air marshals) on board. Passengers xx and yy were fams but customer service never informed me or the captain of the fams on board our flight. The agent did tell the captain we had a pcfa (passenger carrying firearm) in xx. The agent also printed out a boarding pass for xx with the letters pcfa written on it and handed it to the captain. When the agent told me we had a pcfa on board in xx; I checked with the captain and even asked if he was sure he wasn't a fam. The said no he was 'a regular guy'. I discovered that the xx passenger and the yy passenger were fams when one got up to use the lavatory. He began asking me about my trip and disclosed he was formally a police officer but now he was doing 'this'. So I thought maybe he worked for the airline. When I asked him if he did he replied no I am a fam. He appeared to be concerned and surprised that I was not aware of our fam's on board. He also informed me that xx was his lead fam. I immediately checked with the captain about this. The captain was just as surprised as I was to know that we had fams. Not only this; but we never knew yy was carrying a weapon. This is the second time in about 10 days were there has been an issue identifying fam's. On another flight I was given the name and seat number of someone who was supposedly a fam. We discovered later that this information was incorrect that the fam was seat assigned to the seat next to the one they gave us along with a completely different name. We are all doing our very best to keep everyone as secure/safe as possible. It just seems that a breakdown in communication between customer service and either the pilots or flight attendants is occurring. This breakdown could lead to very serious consequences under the wrong circumstances. Also my passenger agent had informed me that when he came on board the aircraft after stepping off to eat the same agent had told him xx was 'packing heat'. Again absolutely no mention of a fam! Maybe together we can revert fams back to boarding aircraft early again to avoid so much confusion.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A320 Flight Attendant discovers airborne that two FAM's are onboard that were not identified to the crew prior to departure.

Narrative: About 3/4 of the way through the flight I discovered we had two FAMs (Federal Air Marshals) on board. Passengers XX and YY were FAMs but Customer Service never informed me or the Captain of the FAMs on board our flight. The Agent did tell the Captain we had a PCFA (Passenger Carrying Firearm) in XX. The Agent also printed out a boarding pass for XX with the letters PCFA written on it and handed it to the Captain. When the Agent told me we had a PCFA on board in XX; I checked with the Captain and even asked if he was sure he wasn't a FAM. The said no he was 'a regular guy'. I discovered that the XX passenger and the YY passenger were FAMs when one got up to use the lavatory. He began asking me about my trip and disclosed he was formally a police officer but now he was doing 'this'. So I thought maybe he worked for the airline. When I asked him if he did he replied no I am a FAM. He appeared to be concerned and surprised that I was not aware of our FAM's on board. He also informed me that XX was his lead FAM. I immediately checked with the Captain about this. The Captain was just as surprised as I was to know that we had FAMs. Not only this; but we never knew YY was carrying a weapon. This is the second time in about 10 days were there has been an issue identifying FAM's. On another flight I was given the name and seat number of someone who was supposedly a FAM. We discovered later that this information was incorrect that the FAM was seat assigned to the seat next to the one they gave us along with a completely different name. We are all doing our very best to keep everyone as secure/safe as possible. It just seems that a breakdown in communication between Customer Service and either the Pilots or Flight Attendants is occurring. This breakdown could lead to very serious consequences under the wrong circumstances. Also my Passenger Agent had informed me that when he came on board the aircraft after stepping off to eat the same Agent had told him XX was 'packing heat'. Again absolutely no mention of a FAM! Maybe together we can revert FAMs back to boarding aircraft early again to avoid so much confusion.

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.