Weelky News(25 Jan-1 Feb/2010)

COLOMBIA

On Sunday (31/01), an anonymous caller told air traffic controllers at Barranquilla (BAQ) that there was a bomb on board an Aero Republica Embraer 190, which was preparing to depart BAQ for Bogota (BOG). Flight operations at BAQ were temporarily suspended. The aircraft was evacuated, and searched by security forces. All pax and baggage was rescreened, but nothing unusual was found. The flight departed four hours late.


INDIA

On Wednesday (27/01), a 46-year-old Sikh extremist who masterminded the hijack of an Indian Airlines flight to Pakistan in 1984, arrived at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Airport, after being deported from Canada. Parminder Singh Saini along with four accomplices who claimed to be members of the All India Sikh Students Federation, hijacked an Indian Airlines flight operating between Srinagar (SXR) and DEL and forced it to divert to Lahore, Pakistan. The terrorists demanded the release of a number of Sikh terrorists. The hijackers surrendered to security forces who stormed the aircraft. Saini was released from prison in 1994 and travelled to Canada using a forged Afghan passport.


NETHERLANDS

On Thursday (28/01), an investigative reporter appeared in a court in Haarlem in connection with a breach of security at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (AMS). Alberto Stegeman was fined €1,500 after he gained unlawful access to the restricted zone with the assistance of a member of KLM staff, while working for a TV news programme. The reporter refuses to pay the fine, claiming that he was acting in the public interest. On a previous occasion, Stegeman breached security and placed a replica IED in the hold of an aircraft, but the decision was taken not to prosecute him.


PAKISTAN

On Friday (29/01), it was reported that the Airport Security Force at Karachi Airport (KHI) continue to use a discredited IED detection device, despite the arrest of the manufacturer in the UK for fraud. The ATSC ADE-651, which was used in more than 20 countries, comprises an antenna mounted to a handgrip. There is no power source needed, and the device, supposedly, uses static electricity to search passengers for any explosive devices or substances. The device was tested by the BBC, which examined one of the electronic cards used to detect explosives. The card was found to contain nothing more than a standard retail anti theft device loop. The British Government has banned further export of the device, after it was revealed that the Iraqi government has spent US$85m (£52m) on the hand-held detectors, for use at vehicle checkpoints throughout Baghdad.


TURKEY

On Sunday (31/01), a Pegasus Airlines B738, operating between Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen (SAW) and Van (VAN) was forced to divert to Ankara (ESB) as a result of an unspecified bomb threat. The aircraft was taken to a remote stand, where it was evacuated and searched by security forces using explosives detection dogs. Nothing unusual was found, and the aircraft departed several hours later.


UNITED KINGDOM

On Tuesday (26/01), Sussex Police officers at London Gatwick Airport were criticised for their heavy handed tactics. Officers were called to a gate where 120 pax were refusing to leave after staff told them that their Ryanair flight to Madrid had been cancelled due to bad weather in Madrid on January 10th. A number of pax complained to the Spanish Embassy in London about the aggressive manner in which they were spoken to and removed from the area.


On Tuesday (26/01), it was reported that unlike the situation in the US, passengers being screened at UK airports will not be given the right to refuse to pass through a full-body scanner when the devices are introduced next week. The Transport Minister told MPs that a random selection of passengers would go through the new scanners. The Department for Transport has drawn up a code of conduct for using the machines, similar to those issued in the US, which state that the security officer guiding the passenger through the machine never sees the image, and that the employee viewing the scan must be based away from the passenger, in a secure room. The two officers communicate with wireless headsets; and, once viewed, the scan cannot be saved, printed or transmitted. Lord West, the counter-terrorism minister, added that the government had firmly ruled out the introduction of "religious or ethnic profiling" into transport security. Instead, he said, airport security staff were being trained in "behavioural profiling", which meant spotting passengers who had paid cash, were travelling with only a book for luggage on a long-haul flight or were behaving erratically at the airport.


UNITED STATES

On Tuesday (26/01), it was reported that the United States is looking to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to advocate new international minimum security standards. Following a meeting with the European Union and the airline industry, Transport Secretary Janet Napolitano said that ICAO had supported a series of regional meetings to discuss new rules. Napolitano did not go into detail about the measures, but has previously called for enhanced random screening, more federal air marshals on flights destined for the United States, and an expanded terrorist watchlist.


On Thursday (28/01), a GAO report said that better use of terrorist watchlist information and improvements in the deployment of passenger checkpoint technologies could further strengthen security. The report focuses on the government’s efforts to use the terrorist watchlist to screen individuals and determine if they pose a threat, and how failures in this process contributed to the December 25th incident on NW253. This report also addresses the TSA’s planned deployment of technologies for enhanced explosive detection and the challenges associated with such a deployment. Go to the Resources page for the full report.


On Friday (29/01), it was reported that an investigation is being carried out after a Spanish tourist reported the theft of his laptop from his baggage as he passed through Orlando Airport (MCO). The theft was discovered on January 6th, when the pax opened his laptop bag and found a TSA hand held wand inside. The pax claimed that he had been forced to check his cabin baggage for a Delta flight to New York LaGuardia (LGA).


On Saturday (30/01), a Continental Airlines B737, operating between Newark Liberty Airport (EWR) and Bogota (BOG) was forced to divert to Jacksonville (JAX) after authorities became aware of what the TSA called a "potential person of interest" on board. The pax was eventually cleared by the FBI, and the aircraft was allowed to continue on it’s route to BOG. Meanwhile it was reported that TSA are investigating why CO permitted a potential watchlist match to board the flight.


TSA Weekly Stats (18th - 25th January, 2010)

2 Artfully concealed prohibited item found at checkpoints

21 Firearms found at checkpoints

14 Passengers were arrested after investigations of suspicious behavior or fraudulent travel docs.