A Personal View W
Expressed by Carolina Ramírez-Taborda
hen I accepted the opportunity to join Aviation Security International's Editorial Advisory Board, I experienced that ‘Oh my God!” feeling. It took me
back to the early years of my professional life, where my training, interest, time, and visions for the future centred on the world of communications, journalism, and writing.
I first flew in an airplane when I was 4 years old – on a DC-9.
I recall it vividly because the occasion was unique: I was flying to my mum’s city of birth, Maracaibo, Venezuela, to have my tonsils removed! I know it is a strange reason for starting one’s career in aviation, but the emotions that flying stirred in me that day - going up the stairs to board this huge contraption, the intense nervousness and experience during take-off and landing - had significant impact. This evolved into a passion for travel, getting my passport stamped as frequently as possible, even to the present day, to where I feel responsible for actually making a difference - adding a security blanket to those kids who, like I once did, are travelling on board an aircraft; an aircraft that is also carrying cargo around the world. I moved from Venezuela to Montreal in 2001 and, while undertaking a project for my master’s degree, I landed at the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) - the organisation with the challenging role of coordinating this vast and complex industry – before starting work across the street at the International Air Transport Association (IATA). IATA catered to the second part of my inquisitive interest which was in understanding the value aviation brings to the world, creating economic growth and wealth. IATA produces standards that form the basic principles that help aviation internationally; allowing and facilitating the freedom of human movement. Cargo came into this new understanding of aviation around the same time I joined IATA. Both ‘security’ and ‘cargo’ have made me who I am today. The more I became exposed to the world of security, the more I realised the scale of the challenge ahead of me. The more frequently I attended conferences and participated
at
industry meetings, the better I understood that cargo security was directly linked to individuals, rules,
processes, infrastructure and controls. However, the weakest of these and yet the most vital link was the human being. Yes, us! People who crate the boxes and packages destined to fly, those that hold information about the consignments and their contents, the date and time they
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should fly and their ultimate destination. Those behind the cameras that monitor people or processes. The men or women driving vehicles on the tarmac or having a smoke behind a column at the airside docks watching cargo being offloaded. I became intrigued and then an opportunity knocked at my
door: a programme in its inception was gaining momentum. And so, I became part of the team that developed and launched Secure Freight. It is an industry initiative, a global air cargo supply chain security solution that aims to set industry standards in which freight is secured upstream in the supply chain and then protected from unlawful interference through its journey until it reaches its destination. I found a justifiable reason to commit my time and efforts to helping states around the world review and sort out the complex task of securing their air cargo supply chain. The biggest challenge is not the rules, processes, infrastructure or controls a state may implement to prevent any incident from happening, but rather finding the right individuals that commit themselves to the roles they play along the supply chain. I have witnessed significant change within a short period of
time. I joked with one regulator that I may have come into the world of cargo security at the right time in history because I have witnessed, during these past three years, an intense effort to globalise regulations and standards for the supply chain. This includes the assessment of risks, the usage of advance cargo data and the way we train our frontline personnel to analyse suspicious behaviours. Someone once told me that amending Annex 17 took almost 20 years following Lockerbie, but in my short life in this domain I believe – and have witnessed - that things can move really fast in aviation! It all depends from where you come from. I originate from a country where I never experienced the brutality of a war first hand, yet I am fully equipped to sense danger and threats on a day-to-day basis having lived within the highly insecure urban environment of my youth. Security in cargo is as complex as each of the individual pieces that come into play when a package is put together to be shipped on an airplane towards its destination. International organisations like ICAO, WCO, UPU, ACI, FIATA, Global Express Association and IATA are making sustained collaborative efforts to progress intelligently and bring forward solutions that make sure the right individuals and processes are positioned to make the air cargo supply chain secure. I see more of that every day when I come to work. And it makes me proud to say that, yes, I am part of that VITAL chain too.
Carolina Ramírez-Taborda is the Assistant Director of Secure Freight with the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
February 2012 Aviationsecurityinternational
…cargo security is directly linked to individuals…
THE FINAL WORD
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