ANALYSIS


BY DAVID CHURCHILL


AVIATION SECURITY IS RISING UP THE TRAVEL MANAGER’S AGENDA AS AIRPORTS STRUGGLE TO FIND EFFECTIVE TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTIONS TO TERRORIST THREATS


JUST BEFORE CHRISTMAS, BAGGAGE SCREENING staff at Frankfurt Airport – Europe’s third busiest after Heathrow and Paris Charles de Gaulle – were alleged to have committed a serious lapse of security. An undercover European Commission (EC) investigation reportedly found that about 50 per cent of the time they were unable to detect guns, explosives and other dangerous objects deliberately hidden in luggage passing through X-ray machines. Although the EC declined to comment on the ongoing investigation – first revealed by German media – airport security staff


24 BBT MARCH/APRIL 2015


are being given extra training in how to spot smuggled weapons on their X-ray screens, according to a spokesman for airport owner Fraport.


At the same time as Frankfurt’s potential security weakness was being exposed, officials at the US Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration (TSA) were collating the full-year figures for guns – mostly loaded – discovered in passengers’ hand luggage at US airports. They found a 22 per cent increase over the previous year to 2,212 guns, the highest total since the TSA started monitoring the


incidence of guns in carry-on bags in 2005. Most of those caught claimed they had simply “forgotten” they had a loaded weapon with them; even so, they faced fines while some were arrested under local airport or state regulations.


HIDDEN DANGERS But not everyone gets caught before boarding their aircraft. Last July, for example, an American who flew into Heathrow from Phoenix was found to have a loaded Glock handgun in his carry-on luggage. The gun was discovered by security staff when he tried to transfer to a Paris flight. Although the


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