Flight security

Exclusive: TSA planning major shift in air marshal operations

Federal air marshals are being moved to the back of the plane -- some of them, at least. The undercover agents who are posted randomly to protect U.S. airliners are -- for the first time -- going to be assigned regularly to seats toward the back, sources briefed on the Transportation Security Administration’s plans told ABC News.Until now, the marshals were always assigned seats toward the front of the planes.The new deployments are scheduled to go into effect Dec. 28.Officials at the TSA, which controls the Federal Air Marshal Service, declined to discuss specifics, citing policies that require operational details to be kept secret. They insisted that it’s important for the agency to sometimes change its routine to keep pace with new and emerging threats.