Worthy News: Air cargo security under scrutiny

Sunday 31 October 2010

Air cargo security under scrutiny

The British Airline Pilots Association said it had been warning of the risks to cargo flights for years

The prime minister will chair a meeting of the government's emergency planning committee, Cobra, later as calls grow for a full review of airport security.

It is expected to discuss tougher checks on freight after a bomb was found on a US-bound cargo plane at East Midlands Airport.

The PETN explosive in the device was not picked up by initial tests.

Aformer head of security at airport operator BAA said cargo checks were less exacting than those on passengers.

Calling for a fundamental review of security, Norman Shanks said: "We're looking at introducing the explosive detection systems that we currently use for passengers' baggage which goes into the hold.

"Now this really can't be introduced for every package, but it could be used for packages coming from areas where there is a known risk."

Home Secretary Theresa May has pledged to review air freight security following the terror alert on Friday.

Investigators at East Midlands had at first declared the bomb - found on a flight from Yemen - safe, before carrying out a re-examination as a precaution.

Lord Carlile, the independent reviewer of counter-terrorism laws, said the failure of existing equipment to initially identify PETN was a "weakness" and checks must be made to ensure the most up-to-date technology was in use.

The British Airline Pilots Association said its members had been warning for years about "open-door" cargo flights.

General secretary Jim McAuslan said efforts should be switched from some of the "redundant security measures" aimed at passengers, towards checking freight instead.

"It makes no sense to us that scarce resources are used to strip down pilots with years of flying experience, rather than targeting resources at the vulnerabilities that we seen exploited in the past 24 hours," he said.

Calls for an overhaul were echoed by the British International Freight Association, although it insisted that there were "already well-established, in-depth and organised processes" in place to screen cargo.

Officials in the US said the bomb found at East Midlands - and another discovered in Dubai - were both were built by the same man who made the explosive device used in the failed "underpants" bomb attack over Detroit on Christmas Day.

A Saudi-born bomb-maker, Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, was named as the prime suspect.

Meanwhile, a female student arrested in Yemen on suspicion of posting the bombs has apparently been freed.

Reports said the woman, named by human rights groups as 22-year-old Hanan al-Samawi, had no known links to Islamist militants and may have been the victim of identity fraud.

A spokesman for Qatar Airways said the parcel found in Dubai travelled on two separate passenger planes via the airline's hub in Doha.

The two packages were addressed to synagogues in the Chicago area. Both bombs were apparently inserted in printer cartridges.

How the alerts were raised (all times GMT):

• Thursday night: Saudi intelligence reportedly tips off MI6 about a cargo plot emanating from Yemen.

• Early hours of Friday morning: alert raised over UPS plane at East Midlands airport. Security cordon put in place, then lifted.

• 0900: suspect package found in Dubai. It was posted via freight firm FedEx.

• 1300: security cordon reinstated at East Midlands airport. Suspicious device sent for detailed examination.

• 1700: FBI says two suspect packages were addressed to religious buildings in Chicago.

• 1835: Emirates Flight 201 from Yemen via Dubai lands at JFK airport, New York, escorted by US fighter jets. The plane is carrying a package from Yemen.

• 1845: FedEx in Dubai confirms it has confiscated a suspect package sent from Yemen and is suspending all shipments from Dubai.

• Friday night: Three UPS flights investigated after landing at Newark, New Jersey, and Philadelphia. They all receive the all-clear after searches.

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