• NATS selects Era's Squid for Gatwick

    Leading provider of airport navigation and traffic management services selects a vehicle-mounted surveillance and monitoring solution for its Gatwick operations: Era’s Squid monitors ground traffic at busy airports (and Gatwick claims it is “the world’s busiest single runway airport”)

  • Wind farms "a threat to [U.K.] national security"

    The U.K. has an ambitious plan calling for producing a third of Britain’s energy needs from offshore wind farms; there is a problem, though: The Ministry of Defense says that both onshore and offshore wind turbines create gaps in radar coverage of the coast line, allowing a sneak aerial attack on the country

  • LAX implements game theory insights for better security

    Game theory algorithm, developed by USC graduate student, improves security by putting police on unpredictable schedules and in unpredictable locations, making it more difficult for terrorists to plan an attack which would exploit observable weaknesses in security routines

  • Trial for mandatory biometrics at Heathrow Terminal 5

    BAA is testing fingerprint security system on passengers at Terminal 1; system will be implemented in Terminal 5 when it opens; T5 will have one lounge for both domestic and international passengers, and new system aims to allow security authorities to have better monitoring of passengers in the lounge

  • EDI to use Xyratex to manage Beijing Airport security

    EDI Technology, a Chinese storage integrator, will use Xyratex F5412E RAID system from Xyratex, a U.K.-based enterprise data storage subsystems and storage process technology provider, for online and archive storage of video surveillance at Beijing Capital International Airport

  • Getting one's name off no-fly watch list a major hassle

    The U.S. lists 28 organizations as terrorist organizations; their total membership is estimated to be around 180,000 (of about 120,000 are members of the recently added Iranian Revolutionary Guard); yet, the U.S. terrorism no-fly watch list now contains more than 700,000 names — and it is growing by thousands every month; if your name got on the list by mistake, it is not easy to have it removed

  • airBaltic selects cockpit security from AD Aerospace

    One key security upgrade which resulted from the 9/11 attacks has been the installation of impregnable cockpit doors; locked doors means that the pilots need other means to monitor area right outside the cockpit — and airBaltic chooses AD Aerospace’s gear for that

  • TSA launches aviation security blog

    TSA launches a blog — Evolution of Security — aimed at encouraging conversations and exchanges between the traveling public and the agency’s experts on matters pertaining to air travel security

  • Aviation still a major target for terrorists

    DHS secretary Michael Chertoff says that commercial aviation is still a major target of terrorists; U.S. and European counterterrorism experts agree that U.S. faces a major threat from European-born terrorists

  • Magnetic fingerprinting to contribute to air traffic safety

    European researchers develop an innovative system which monitors tiny fluctuations in the Earth’s magnetic field caused by a passing plane; system increases airport safety even in the worst weather conditions

  • Manchester airport installs first-in-U.K. iris scan access control

    The majority of airports around the world use access control cards to regulate the movement of people, but these typically require human presence at each entry point; the 25,000 staff at Manchester airport will now be using iris scans to enter restricted areas; double-door access system governed by iris recognition cameras

  • BAE in contract to defend Ospreys from ground fire

    After many years of development, and bitter debates over the craft’s safety record, the Marine Corps is ordering the tiltrotor VSTOL Osprey by the dozen; now there is a need to defend them from hostile ground fire, and BAE receives a contract to do so

  • Airport screeners use black lights to inspect ID cards

    TSA screeners at about 400 U.S. airports have began checking IDs with hand-held black lights; black lights help screeners inspect ID cards by illuminating holograms, typically of government seals, which are found in licenses and passports

  • Panel says aviation security in Israel in "catastrophic state"

    The proficiency and competence of the vaunted Israel Air Force — most recently, and mysteriously, demonstrated over the skies of Syria on 6 September — apparently does not translate into the Israeli civilian aviation system

  • Atlanta's Hartsfield second in U.S. to collect ten fingerprints

    DHS begins collecting ten fingerprints from international visitors at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport; Washington Dulles airport began doing so in late November; eight additional U.S. airports to implement ten-fingerprint requirement in 2008