Due to the confidentiality requirements of discussing airline security here in a public forum, we will limit the material presented for security reasons. However there are some very important aspects your company needs to take into consideration when auditing and evaluating airline security for potential vulnerabilities.
The government buildup of the aviation security machine is truly impressive. However, will these attempts to improve airline security make a difference in whether a terrorist attempts to hijack or attack commercial aviation? Will the efforts at improving aviation security intimidate terrorists into seeking other softer targets? We will obviously not be able to answer these questions because we don’t have direct knowledge of future events. However, without continual review of potential vulnerabilities of flight operations weaknesses can go undetected, which may indirectly allow terrorists or others unwanted access to airliners.
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San Diego, California USA
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As in any organization that involves people and procedures they are susceptible to a multiple of errors. When these errors line up in a security incident trajectory that slips through both direct and indirect security perimeters a serious security event will occur. The tricky part of course is coordinating actions within organizations to stop the security incident trajectory. This is not an easy goal to achieve and terrorist organizations no doubt are aware of the difficulty in establishing and maintaining these relationships between the various groups of people who make up aviation security.
Aviation security should be designed to serve one or more of the following defensive functions:
Develop an understanding and awareness of serious security threats.
Establish clear guidance on how to deal with a terrorist incident or other serious security threat.
Provide adequate alarms and warnings about imminent serious security threats.
Establish safety barriers between the security threat and other potential losses.
Contain and neutralize the security threat should they evade the barriers.
Provide a means of escape and rescue of innocent passengers and crew if the barriers can’t contain the security threat.
Restore the movement of passengers and employees when the threat is resolved.
There is no easy way to explain a complicated intermix of organizations and people in a field of aviation security, which will become bigger and bigger and more and more complex over time. The coherent coordination of the many organizations and individuals is a complex equation indeed.
Currently, the airline security systems of most of the world place an emphasis on the outer rings of the concentric circles rather than the center area. The closer you get to the vital middle area of the security rings the less protected the area becomes. In other words, airline security approaches security from the outside in while at the same time reducing protection as each ring of security is passed. For example, outer rings consist of items such as the CAPS program, police patrolling the terminal areas, EDS machines checking luggage for explosives, security checkpoints where passengers are checked for weapons. However, the closer one gets to the passengers and crew the less protected it becomes. We’re not at all suggesting that the outer rings of security aren’t important because they are and should continually be upgraded and improved. But quite frankly, the outside in security approach is backwards and inadequate to probably what airline security should actually be. This approach, which doesn’t provide any real guidance on tactics or procedures, places the passengers and crew at incredible risk because it leaves them at their own devices to protect themselves.
With the outside in approach to airline security the question is then raised what occurs if terrorists make it through the decreasing levels of the security rings and boards the flight? Not an unrealistic assumption considering the preparation the 9/11 terrorists went through to commit their serial murders.
We believe the passengers and crew, which is the center vital area of the airline security model, be the most protected. It should be provided the highest level of security rather than the other way around. This approach to airline security is from the inside out and one we believe is the logical and correct method. All the rings of security protection should be overlapping and compliment each other rather than relying heavily upon the outer rings as presently exists in airline security.
Please contact us if we can assist you in evaluation of your flight operations security. Aviation Safety & Security Association personnel guarantees compliance with confidentiality requirements and will not reveal any sensitive security information to any unauthorized individuals.
