It is sensible to take steps to identify and stop militants prior to leaving the ground. These are my thoughts on airport security:
1. Airport workers.
I’ve been at many airports around the world where I have seen aircraft cleaners and caterers etc. who have in all honesty, been scruffy and unkempt. Obviously personal hygiene is not a direct link to militancy, but one wonders what controls are in place over:
– from when food leaves the ovens until it is stowed inside an aircraft. Are the food and containers inspected by Customs officials in the actual kitchens, and is it then guarded all the way to the aircraft?
– Staff background checks
– How/when cleaners are supervised by Customs
2. Procedures
– How/when aircraft cleaners and baggage handlers are supervised
– How the baggage audit trail is analysed and tested
– How often “mystery shoppers” are used to try and break the systems
– I believe in “open source” security methodologies – ie. not keeping quiet about procedures and techniques, but debating them in public. No matter how quiet you keep it, a determined intelligent person will always find out all they want. Conversely a bunch of retired policmen running airport security may lack the mental agility to constantly refine procedures, so open intelligent debate is vital to identifying and closing loopholes quickly. Sadly, there is no open debate on security in the West. Do you thing there should be?
Does anyone have any comments, additions or explanations?
By: T5 - 15th December 2002 at 18:53
RE: Security part 2
At airports, with Heathrow as an example, it is surrounded by 6ft high fences with barbed wire across the top. Now, if someone on the outside worked with airport staff, a weapon or two could quite easily be smuggled onto an aircraft…
1. An outsider arranges a meeting pointing with one of the Jeep drivers who patrols the airfield…
2. Weapons are chucked over the fence and collected by the airport patrol…
3. These weapons are taken to an aircraft where they can be handed to people on board.
I guess this is the same as passing through security when the security officers turn a blind eye to a bag containing a bomb or concealing weapons!!
By: KabirT - 15th December 2002 at 04:49
RE: Security part 2
valid points there Mongu….but after the incident in kenya security will have to be looked in a a diff. prospective. Not only inside the airport but near the runways as well.
For eg. in India…have a look at this….
http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/dec/14jk1.htm
These kind of things are that make a nightmare for a travelar.
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December 15, 2002 at 12:25 am