Counter Terror Gazette

Volcanoes & Flotillas: from Eyjafjallajökull to Gaza

As we pat down bodies, X-ray bags, verify identification, effect random vehicle searches and swab a variety of hand-held items that might just have come into contact with explosives, we believe that we are doing all that we can to prevent the next terrorist atrocity taking place. Laudable efforts, implemented by underpaid individuals in one of the most bureaucratic of labour environments.

Human Trafficking: the flight to slavery and sexual exploitation

In the West, we like to believe that the heyday of slavery is over. The reality is that, in many parts of the world, poorly-enforced international legislation has not reduced the allure for forced labour. According to the American Administration for Children and Families, human trafficking is the world’s fastest growing criminal enterprise and is tied for second spot with arms trading behind the drug trade. Whilst many people are transported across national borders by road, rail and ship, there are significant numbers being sold into slavery or sexual exploitation that board international flights, especially in the era of the low cost carrier. To what extent is it a problem for the aviation security community? Marcia Adair reports on some of the trends and issues surrounding human trafficking.

Airport Security & the Big Event: from the World Cup to the 2012 Olympics

With the FIFA World Cup set to kick off in South Africa in June and, thereafter, the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand and the 2012 Olympic Games in London to look forward to, Chanize Thorpe explores what this means for the international airports involved and considers how aviation security measures will be ramped up well in advance of the opening ceremonies.

Coverage and Deterrence: questioning the US Federal Air Marshal Programme

On Christmas Day 2009 a young man from Nigeria, travelling from Amsterdam to Detroit, attempted to ignite a bomb sewn into his underwear. The attempt, mimicking that of Richard Reid, who attempted to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight with explosives in his shoes, on 22 December 2001, was also a failure. The latest would-be bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was subdued by passengers on the aircraft – there were no Federal Air Marshals (FAMs) on board. Shortly thereafter, an alarmed general public began calling for better security at airport screening checkpoints. By the first week of January 2010, President Obama had opined on the matter. Embracing the time-tested model of action-reaction that has characterised aviation security over the past four decades, he stated that “…human and systemic failures” were responsible for the attempt, having contributed to a “potentially catastrophic breakdown in security.” The President went on to call for a “surge” of Federal Air Marshals to be completed by the beginning of February. Administration officials characterised the action as “a race against time.”

Blast Containment: holding back Hell’s dragons

With improved passenger screening making it harder for terrorists to penetrate airside zones and infiltrate devices on board aircraft, the threat of bomb attacks against airport terminals has increased. The high profile attack on Glasgow airport in July 2007 turned the world’s attention to this terrorist modus operandi. Andy Oppenheimer outlines the various countermeasures to protect life and infrastructure at airports from explosive devices

Critical infrastructure protection (CIP) has become a priority in anti-terrorist countermeasures. It includes practical measures such as improving the design of buildings to make it harder for them to be blown up and, if they are, building in design features which will limit damage to life, limb and property. The threat of an improvised explosive device (IED), or multiple devices, exploding within an airport has long been factored into security arrangements

Metal Detection: advances in traditional passenger screening

The workhorse of the airport security checkpoint has long been the archway metal detector, sometimes supplemented by the hand-held magnetometer. The portals and wands may look the same as those deployed forty years ago, yet the technology itself has much improved. Helen Gripton enters the realms of disrupting eddy currents!

For many years now, the aviation industry has had to respond to and attempt to counter the threat of terrorism and other criminal acts. Civil aviation and airports continue to be attractive, high profile, targets and the industry is, and has to remain, open to new and evolving technology that may speed up and simplify the task of screening passengers both rapidly and accurately.

Travel Document Security: an airline perspective

Security is not all about hi-tech and this truism has even greater validity when it comes to passport and travel document inspection processes. Emirates is one of the world’s premier airlines that has a global reputation for its ability to effectively and efficiently determine whether or not the paperwork a passenger presents is genuine and, in doing so, whether the passenger should be allowed to board. Dr Abdulla Al Hashimi delivers the airline’s perspective.

A Personal View Expressed by Capt. Nico Voorbach

The closing of European airspace on Thursday 15th April 2010, due to a volcanic ash cloud, showed once more that the decisions to operate are no longer left to pilots but are directed by political sensitivities. Aviation regulatory authorities took away the possibility for pilots and airlines to make decisions regarding safety, disregarding the fact that they are prepared and trained to handle such situations. We often say that the air transport industry is the most regulated deregulated field; this is not only true from a safety and commercial point of view but also from a security one.

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SABATAGE & ATTACKS, UNRULY PASSENGERS, JUDGEMENT & ARREST & INCIDENTS