Aviation Security and Stress Factor.......

Aviation security officers /Screeners here and every where in world daily walk the plank in there minds, they are worried over one thing..


Have i missed some thing? the stress factor on one shift is so high that they have to maintain there sanity and that is not easy......first time Low Cost Airlines, passengers who don't understand why they have to stand in long lines to get there baggage screened, not understanding why some items from there bags have to be removed... to cut this pressure the the regulatory body had decided to give screener's a 20 min rotation ..one sits on the XRAY and other keeps a watch on the line ( he is supposed to do profiling of passengers). The 20 min rotation is a good thing ...

Stress kills and it kills fast ,Stress makes you commit mistakes ...there is no programme in the world for aviation security personal teaching them how to deal with pressure...

A security agent/officers life from the moment he comes on a shift is a fight with the system which is trying to subvert his main area of function....Multitasking is a cross function which is now being used by airlines and mostly in Low Cost Airlines, it saves money for the company to Hire/train security officers, they are supposed to work as customer service agents also, as when required they can be taken off security roster and put to customer service duties....this further puts pressure on security if the person taken is a certified screener...now the team loses one screener...to the system...and have to make do with what they have...A certified screener is qualified to carry on all security functions from A-Z.....

This further builds pressure on the team...which plods on with what they have....Multitasking should always be from Customer service to security..so that Customer Service which are the Prima Dona's of every airline understands what is security , which most of them even after knowing tend to ignore...or just don't wish to see,as it goes away from there basic brief.."send the aircraft on time"...

In one of my earlier posts i wrote that security has to be independent of every department if it has to carry out its brief...Security gets two briefs one from the regulatory body and one from the airline management.....the airline managements brief...is always "Look guys, be good and don't be a stickler for rules".....who to listen and who to ignore......

New and Emerging Threats...to Aviation

I was thinking for some time to write about the "new and emerging threats" to civil aviation worldwide, we think if the current threats range from hijacking,attacks on the airports and a possibility of a bomb attack..well think think again....as time changed the terrorist has evolved with it and has refined his tactics, gone are the day's of the Red brigade,Red army...etc...today terrorist is highly educated (as you all are very well aware) highly motivated and has the capacity to out think his opponent.

There are two future threats for which we have to be prepared in the civil aviation sector.

• Threats from Cargo and non commercial airlines ( the small aircraft's/cargo freighter's).
• A threat which we can define as "Cyber warfare".

I am not going to be advocate here who will define what is good or bad,if you see i am also dependent on a technology which is driving most of this world. There must be more than a billion people connected to this invisible information highway and so is "HE".

The age of the "Key board warrior" has come and who else to feel the punch than the US govt, recently there systems were hacked by the Chinese army.

One of the greatest Masters of warfare who's book is used as a bible today for most of the armies of the world "Sun Tzu" said and i quote...


" Hit your enemy where it hurts him most and to win a war with dead bodies to count is not winning,but to win a war with out dead bodies is a true win"

so we come to this point again how will all this effect the civil aviation?

Did you all see Die Hard film? did you notice how the ATC was taken over , well that's not a far off thought in a time like this.

Most of the ticketing software works online (using the web) if some one wants an airline to stop working for a day he just needs to get in it and Voila that the end of every thing for that day NO FLIGHTs.

The regulatory bodies have to very seriously think how to safe guard the civil aviation against this unlawful threat. No pun intended but the ICONS of the regulatory body don't have the time for this.

In all my years in the Aviation Security i have learned that you have to be two steps ahead of the alleged terrorist however that man is 5 steps ahead of you and the living example of that was 9/11 who could have imagined that some one would use an aircraft as a missile.


too be continued.......

Security Culture in India......

Every AVSEC professorial would agree that threat to the civil aviation comes from the assumption that there is no room for improvement and every thing is right and hunky dory. If a loophole exists ,then someone, some where will find it and try and exploit it to its fullest, are we looking at the future threats? the most dangerous threat to the aviation sector is the new and emerging threat posed by the "Internet".The more connected we are the more venerable we become.

There is a culture in airlines and that is catching like fire "sending a flight on time is more IMPORTANT than ,sending a SECURE flight".

AVIATION SECURITY is a forgotten sector here in India, we confuse it with SAFETY if a flight is safe for most in the airline it means that the flight is also "SECURE",after IC-814 we have not faced any major disaster that does not mean that we put our guard down.

The best defense against any terrorist does not come in the form of new technology or developments in EVDs or x-ray scanners or the latest CCTV "it comes in the form of the human brain and investment in sharpening human brain to its best possible capacity and that is an investment worth taking". It is always the man behind the machine.

I am not saying that technology is not good but i believe the more you take in technology the more venerable you become,lets not keep our flanks unprotected. A human asset will always be more important than the technology.Technology will always be an helping hand to the human brain.

While saying that, the investment in technology is below the desired level here and need a boost immediately, the investment in human brain is at a ok level when it comes to Aviation security we have not been able to create a much desired security culture among the passengers which is most important.

Aviation Security department in every airline is considered to be a nuisance as it asks WHERE ,WHEN and HOW, as of today we don't have a generation of AVSEC officers (apart from the officers who retire from the AVSEC regulatory body)who can later be the bed rock of airlines of the future,people want to leave this trade as salaries are low there are no promotions,frustration among the staff.....

lets hope we are able to develop a security culture in India.