INTERNATIONAL. Aviation security restrictions are under intense media, political, regulatory and consumer scrutiny worldwide following the failed terrorist attack on a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Schiphol on Christmas Day.
Passengers have experienced long delays in US airports and at those airports serving US-bound flights as security is stepped up.
One senior industry source in the US told The Moodie Report that the long delays at screening points were adversely impacting commercial dwell time. In the UK British Airways has advised passengers that, following US government advice, only one item of hand luggage is allowed for all passengers travelling to the US from Heathrow, Gatwick and London City airports.
 Kneejerk reactions and a Keystone Cops approach to terrorism |
| Don’t stop me buying my duty free. Don’t stop me watching my inflight entertainment. Don’t stop me visiting the restroom when nature calls. And don’t treat me like a terrorist when your own Keystone Cops ineptitude is what is making the aviation world such a dangerous place. |
| Story and pictures on The Moodie Blog |
This applies to passengers whose journey originates in London, as well as those who are transferring flights. Annoyingly, it fails to mention whether airside duty free purchases are included in that limit. World Duty Free’s website makes no mention of any new restrictions and offers no clarification on the current evolving situation.
Meanwhile criticism is growing over the failure of the authorities to screen Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian passenger responsible for the failed terrorist attack.
Following his father’s stated concerns to the US authorities over Abdulmutallab’s possible terrorist allegiances, the 23 year-old Nigerian was included in the US government’s Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment list in November.
This comprises the names of 550,000 persons suspected of terrorist associations. Within this is a sub-list of around 14,000 people who should be put through additional airport security screening measures. The US also has a “˜no-fly’ list comprising about 4,000 people banned from boarding international flights.
Critically, Abdulmutallab, though pegged by both the US and UK authorities as a person to be monitored (he was refused a UK visa in May and placed on a security list after he applied to study at a non-existent college) was on neither of the shorter lists.
The subsequent failure to identify Abdulmutallab as a risk has led to strong criticism on both sides of the Atlantic. The Obama administration has suffered what the Washington Post described as “blistering criticism” from national security experts and from Republican lawmakers, who demanded changes to the airline screening system. Peter King, the leading Republican on the House of Representatives homeland security committee, said airport security has “failed in every respect”.
In the UK, popular Daily Mail columnist Richard Littlejohn penned an article entitled “˜Stable door security panic hands victory to the bad guys’.
He wrote: “It is the blanket, often bovine, application of airline security that irritates. I can’t see how patting down a family with young children on their way to Disneyworld, searching a three-year-old’s Power Rangers backpack, or preventing a middle-aged woman taking both her handbag and a small carry-on case helps anyone. How many attacks have ever been prevented by the wholesale confiscation of nail varnish and contact lens solution?
“The US authorities are also insisting on all passengers being forced to remain in their seats, like naughty schoolchildren, for a full hour before landing. So having been encouraged to drink plenty of fluid to remain hydrated, we’re supposed to sit with our legs crossed for 60 minutes or more.
“No last-minute trips to the loo for the elderly, no nappy changing facilities for harassed mums. If this carries on, they’ll be selling duty free incontinence pants on board, alongside the Toblerone.
“And the airlines have even been instructed to turn off their novelty, Dad’s Army-style route maps on the seatback screens, so suicide bombers can’t use them to determine when to press the detonator over the target. They’ll just have to look out of the window instead.
“Where it will all end? Some US airports have full body scanners, a sort of sophisticated version of those X-Ray Spex you used to get with comics.
“But would they have picked up the explosives Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is said to have sewn into his underpants? … Are all passengers soon going to be required to undergo a colonoscopy before they are allowed to board a US-bound flight? When I saw the screening staff at Gatwick were wearing surgical gloves, I feared the worst. Have a nice day.”
Littlejohn concluded: “Luckily, the Delta bomber didn’t succeed in his aim of bringing death and destruction to the skies over Detroit.
“But if the purpose of terrorism is to spread panic and disrupt civilized society going about its daily business, the headless-chicken reaction to this latest attempt has once again handed the bad guys another significant victory.”
Writing for ABC.com in Australia, columnist Clive Williams adopted a more measured tone, noting: “The reaction by the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has been to heighten security on flights into the US. The TSA has to be seen to be ramping up security, but is probably at a loss to do much that is meaningful at this time.
“The TSA is being coy about the new security measures so as not to alert terrorists to what they are, but they apparently include pat-down searches for passengers travelling to the US, and a freeze on activity onboard aircraft for the final hour of the flight into the US, with seats returned to the landing configuration.
“There are measures that could be put in place to reduce the risk to US-bound aircraft. These include: more intrusive screening, use of sniffer and other explosives detectors for all passengers, not allowing any person of security interest to fly, screening of all shoes, not allowing carry-on duty free high-proof inflammable alcohol – such as vodka – the presence of Air Security Officers on all US-bound flights, and increased flight attendant monitoring of passengers during flights.
“Some of these measures would create cost problems and raise civil liberties issues. Airlines are trying to cut back on flight attendants as a cost saving measure, and will not want to be made liable for increased pre-flight screening costs, nor will airports want to invest in expensive new explosives detectors unless they are funded by the Commonwealth government.
“Meanwhile, civil libertarians will no doubt see heightened security measures as another threat to the rights of the majority as a result of an infrequent risk posed by a small number of extremists.”
MORE ON THE NORTHWEST AIRLINES ATTACK
Security crackdown may hit duty free – 28/12/09
Terrorist attack on Northwest plane prompts increase in airport security checks – 27/12/09
