 U.S. Federal Air Marshal Robert MacLean was fired for making a disclosure that protected aviation and national security. Immediately after a suicide terrorist hijacking plot was discovered by U.S. and foreign intelligence agencies in the summer of 2003, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) formulated a plan to remove air marshals from nonstop, long distance flights, the same type of aircraft used during the September 11 attacks in 2001. TSA concocted the plan after facing a budget shortfall. TSA's goal was to save funds associated with air marshals having to lodge overnight at hotels after a full duty day of long distance missions traveling away from their duty stations. Air marshals would have been missing from nonstop, long distance flights until the new federal fiscal year, a duration of two months. After congressional outrage the day after MacLean's disclosure, the plan was immediately rescinded and air marshal coverage of long haul flights was never affected.
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