African nations do not have the means for meaningful improvements in airport security
While some of the worst lapses, such as allowing spears or other potential weapons in carry-on luggage, seem no longer to occur, other aspects of airport security in Africa remain disquieting; One expert says that if airports in developing nations had to meet Western security standards, “they would ground all the airplanes, as simple as that”
Nairobi's airport // Source: Kenya Airports Authority
Western countries are rushing to upgrade airport security to meet new threats, but African countries do not have the money to even meet the old standards that Western airports now find inadequate, according to aviation analysts. The answer, some say, is to screen passengers from developing countries with poor security more thoroughly at transit airports.
The attempt by Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to blow up a flight to Detroit with explosives concealed in his underwear highlighted security weaknesses. He boarded a plane in Lagos, Nigeria, for Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, carrying explosives and a detonator. Both airports failed to detect a bomb.
The Chicago Tribune’s Robyn Dixon reports that in the wake of the Christmas Day incident, the United States announced last week that passengers arriving from certain countries, including Nigeria, would face enhanced screening.
Nigeria criticized as discriminatory the new U.S. policy, which subjects passengers from Yemen, Nigeria, and other countries to more full-body pat-downs, carry-on bag searches, body scanning, and explosive detection screening. “It is unfair to discriminate against over 150 million people because of the behavior of one person,” said Information Minister Dora Akunyili.
Dixon writes that while some of the worst lapses, such as allowing spears or other potential weapons in carry-on luggage, seem no longer to occur, other aspects of airport security in Africa remain disquieting: The security official who barely glances at hand luggage, the bags lying in apparent chaos near a terminal building, or the poor fences on some perimeters.
“You’ll get a loose pat-down and a random search of bags, but that doesn’t necessarily cut it when you are looking at threats such as the one on Christmas Day,” said Chris Yates, aviation security analyst with Jane’s Information Group.
U.S. aviation security analyst Douglas Laird said Abdulmutallab would have passed through almost any airport in the world because very few operate body scanners. He said most African nations can not afford even the scanning equipment used for examining checked bags in the United States. He estimated the cost at $1.2 million for a scanner and $1.4 million for installation.
African airports meet international standards, he said, but they are less stringent than those in the United States. Security is monitored by the International Civil Aviation Organization, a UN agency. If airports in developing nations had to meet Western security standards, “they would ground all the airplanes, as simple as that,” Laird said.
Nigerian aviation security analyst Chris Aligbe said Nigeria had been working hard to improve security because it wants the right to establish direct flights to the U.S. He said security lapses and corruption, which were common in the past, had all but disappeared.
