Jetliners still vulnerable

17 Feb, 2002 08:54 AM4 mins to read

LONDON - Passenger jets are as vulnerable to terrorism as they were before September 11, despite tightened security measures, say aviation experts.

Claims that security has significantly improved, particularly in the United States, are little more than "a lot of noise and public relations spin", says Chris Yates, airport security editor for Jane's Defence Weekly.

After the September 11 attacks, when suicide hijackers flew planes into New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington, killing more than 3000 people, tougher security was introduced at airports worldwide.

Searches on check-in have grown more rigorous, all sharp objects, from knives to tweezers, are removed from passengers, and plastic cutlery has replaced metal knives and forks on board planes.

Yates' comments come after two major breaches of security at British airports.

In the first, an operator in charge of a scanning machine at Manchester Airport in northern England flunked a security test by allowing guns, fake explosives and bomb-making equipment on to a passenger flight.

And at Heathrow in London, the world's busiest international hub, robbers last week stole $US6.5 million ($15.7 million) in a raid on a British Airways van in a secure area.

"If you can drive into an airfield to steal $6.5 million, you can easily drive in and plant a bomb," Yates said.

Both incidents showed the industry was still vulnerable to the "human factor", said Tim Spicer, a mercenary turned security consultant.

"I was pretty staggered that the Heathrow incident took place," said Mr Spicer, head of Strategic Consulting International, which has audited security at Sri Lankan airports.

"The danger is keeping up security, as guarding is pretty mind-numbing stuff.

"When you don't have an incident, it's human nature for people to slack off."

In December, French authorities failed to stop Richard Reid, the Briton suspected of trying to blow up a transatlantic flight with explosives hidden in his shoe, from boarding an American Airlines plane from Paris to Miami.

The 28-year-old was overpowered by passengers and crew, but only after an alert flight attendant saw him apparently trying to set his shoes on fire.

Britain's Transport Department, which is responsible for airport security, has demanded urgent answers into the security breach at Heathrow.

All staff should be searched before entering restricted zones at airports, a spokeswoman said.

"We're not complacent about aviation security," she said. "We have got some of the most stringent aviation security programmes in the world and these remain at a heightened level."

It would be impossible to achieve 100 per cent security without bringing the industry to a standstill.

In November, President George W. Bush vowed "permanent and aggressive steps" to bolster security in the United States. They included stronger cockpit doors, armed marshals on planes, better technology and the hiring of 28,000 federal baggage screeners within a year.

"The US is making a lot of fuss," said Yates, "but very few orders have been made for any new equipment and the ultimate goal of having 100 per cent baggage screening in place by the end of the year isn't going to happen.

"The industry has been guilty of going for high-profile security, bolting the front door but leaving the back door wide open.

"There are any number of US airfields where the perimeter security is downright appalling."

Mr Spicer, a former British Army lieutenant-colonel who made headlines in the late 1990s as a gun-for-hire in Sierra Leone and Papua New Guinea, said it was exactly this vulnerable "back door" that terrorists would look to exploit.

"It's much more likely that an attempt to put something on a plane will be done through the back door than someone trying to carry it on.

"You can have a good system, but you will always have your little Trojan Horse. That's the worry."

- REUTERS

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