Aviation securityAustralia's airports easy prey for terrorists
New report says Australia’s airports Aussie airports are “wide open” to terror attacks with lax security vetting of staff, poor perimeter protection, and no strategy to counter car bombs; security protocols and standards at Australia’s airports developed to keep the 2000 Olympic Games safe ceased to exist six months after the closing ceremony
Australian airport passenger screening // Source: abc.net.au
Australia’s major airports are “wide open” to terror attacks with lax security vetting of staff, poor perimeter protection, and no strategy to counter car bombs, a major international conference will be told this week.
Security protocols and standards at Australia’s airports developed to keep the 2000 Olympic Games safe ceased to exist six months after the closing ceremony, according to Homeland Security Asia/Pacific, a private consultancy specializing in airport security and counter-terrorism and a corporate member of the Australian Airports Association.
Sunday Herald Sun’s Laurie Nowell writes that the company is delivering a workshop at the Australian Airports Association conference in Adelaide on Wednesday to address what it calls the potential for “systemic failure” of security at airports.
More than 600 delegates from across the globe will attend the conference.
Homeland Security CEO Roger Henning said among security concerns at airports were:
- No one now knew who was driving garbage trucks on to airport precincts;
- Airport executives had little or no knowledge of who was working on tarmacs Australia-wide, or driving tugs and tankers;
- Untrained, casual baggage handlers engaged by airlines were working on tarmacs without having had security checks or having ASIC-photo ID;
- Security at Melbourne’s Tullamarine and Adelaide airports had been breached in recent weeks;
- The car bomb threat to terminals and facilities was not yet understood;
- Risks, consequences and the cost of systemic failure leading to an airport disaster still had to be adequately addressed or assessed by the industry.
Henning, a former information attache with the Australian embassy in Washington, D.C. and former intelligence officer Michael Roach, who worked on security at the Sydney Olympic Games, will present the workshop.
“The daily pressure of maintaining airport and airline operations means little time is devoted to reviewing, revamping and revitalizing airport security, let alone changing the security culture,” Henning said.
“We have spent four years investigating ways to better protect each airport workforce, airline passengers, visitors and billions worth of critical infrastructure Australia-wide and to develop solutions to fix holes in security,” he said.
