BOSTON -- A Chelsea man has been arrested for claiming he was a federal air marshal when he isn't.

Neighbors didn’t know what to think as federal agents and local police surrounded the Webster Avenue home.

“I saw the FBI here this morning but I didn’t know what the purpose was,” said Mary Finnigan, neighbor.

They were there to arrest 31-year-old Abdir-Rahman Hassan, whose been employed by Delta Airlines as a ramp worker for roughly 10 years, while leaving others to believe he was a federal air marshal.

“He told us he was an air marshal from the day he bought that house,” said one neighbor.

“I just took him for his word. He seemed like a nice guy,” said another.

And he allegedly told workers at Eagle Hill Auto Body that he was paid to protect the skies after being questioned about unreported additional damage to his car that he wanted fixed following a December accident.

When a fraud investigator for the auto insurance company paid him a visit at his home, they say Hassan answered the door with a handgun holstered on his hip. He claimed he'd been employed as a marshal for 9 years, getting paid roughly $4,500 per month.

He added: "I'm a US Air Marshal and I have to catch a flight at noon today because I’m going to Detroit."

For now, prosecutors are not claiming that he ever posed as an air marshal while working at Logan Airport, where Delta has grounded the ramp worker, suspending him from his job.

Hassan is now charged with impersonating an air marshal. He faces three years in prison and a quarter-million dollar fine.

Disability Plan (26)
A pilot who finds himself in a situation in which he may use all of his available sick leave
and continues to be unable to work should contact the MEC’s Senior Benefits Specialist and
Contract Administration. An excellent source of information on our disability program is
the Retirement and Insurance Report 08-03 -- The Delta Pilot’s Guide to Disability
Benefits. Very little information on the Disability and Survivorship Plan is reproduced in
the PWA as it is quite lengthy. It is an included part of the PWA by reference.

TD Period. Your TD period begins when you advise crew scheduling and a SICK status is
posted on your schedule in DBMS. This date becomes your Event Date for all purposes of that
disability under D&S Plan. Your maximum TD period is 26 weeks, but no TD benefits will be
paid from the D&S Plan during the first seven calendar days of TD. More importantly, no TD
benefits will be paid during the 26-week TD period while you are receiving pay, such as paid
accident leave (also known as on-the-job-injury or OJI pay), sick leave or vacation. TD benefits
will only begin once you exhaust your accident leave and sick leave, and (if you elect) your
vacation. On the date you exhaust your sick leave, your status changes from SICK to Medical
Leave of Absence (SLOA). TD benefits will begin on your SLOA date (or the date you exhaust
your vacation if you choose to do so) if you are still within your TD period (first 26 weeks after
your Event Date)

Amount of TD Benefit. The amount of your weekly TD benefit is equal to 50 percent of the
weekly average of your highest 12 consecutive months of normal earnings out of the last 36
months while you are on active payroll status (including accident and sick leave and vacation).
Your TD benefit is then offset (reduced), dollar for dollar, by your workers compensation
benefits and by retirement benefits in respect of certain Delta pilot retirement plans. See
"Offsets to Disability Benefits" below, for a detailed discussion of these offsets.
Duration of TD Benefits. As long as you continue to qualify, TD benefits are payable until the
end of the 26-week TD period.