Showing posts with label airline security. Show all posts
Showing posts with label airline security. Show all posts
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Monday, February 27, 2012
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: A retired fireman, and creator of the popular children's character, Fireman Sam, was detained at an airport for questioning why a veiled woman was not checked by security.
As David Jones arrived at the security gates at Gatwick airport, he was looking forward to getting through swiftly so he could enjoy lunch with his daughters before their flight.
Placing his belongings, including a scarf, into a tray to pass through the X-ray scanner he spotted a Muslim woman in hijab pass through the area without showing her face.
In a light-hearted aside to a security official who had been assisting him, he said: “If I was wearing this scarf over my face, I wonder what would happen.”
The quip proved to be a mistake. After passing through the gates, he was confronted by staff and accused of racism.
As his daughters, who had passed through security, waited in the departure lounge wondering where he was, he was subjected to a one hour stand-off as officials tried to force him to apologise.
Mr Jones, 67, who is the creator of the popular children’s character Fireman Sam, said: “Something like George Orwell’s 1984 now seems to have arrived in Gatwick airport.
"I feel that my rights as an individual have been violated. What I underwent amounts to intimidation and detention. I was humiliated and degraded in full public view.
"I am a 67-year-old pensioner and have lived my life within the law. I do not have even one point on my driving licence.” » | Jason Lewis, Investigations Editor | Sunday, February 26, 2012
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Neuer Terroralarm = verschärfte Kontrollen = mehr Frust bei allen Passagieren. Der künftige Chef des Flughafenverbands will mit dieser Logik brechen und Fluggäste nach Risikogruppen einteilen. In Berlin sorgt der Vorschlag für helle Empörung - sowohl in der Koalition als auch bei der Opposition.
Berlin - Der SPD-Innenpolitiker Dieter Wiefelspütz ist so schnell nicht aus der Fassung zu bringen. Bei diesem Vorschlag aber hält er sich nicht zurück. "Schreiben Sie bitte ruhig: Das ist Selektion am Flughafen - gerade in Deutschland wird es das nicht geben", sagt er mit Hinweis auf die jüngere deutsche Geschichte. Die Einteilung nach Ethnien - das löst in Deutschland schlechte Erinnerungen an die Nazi-Zeit aus. >>> Von Severin Weiland | Dienstag, 28. Dezember 2010
Friday, December 03, 2010
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: According to Israelis, the secret to their successful airport security is not labor-intensive checkpoints, but a screening system that is frowned upon in many other countries: ethnic profiling. WSJ's Martin Himel reports.
HT: Christine @ iBloga >>>
Monday, November 22, 2010
LE FIGARO: Les nouvelles mesures destinées à améliorer la sécurité dans le transport aérien soulèvent une vague de mécontentement outre-Atlantique. Continuez à lire et réagir à cet article >>> Par Adèle Smith | Lundi 22 Novembre 2010
Monday, November 01, 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Airline passengers could be faced with "ludicrous" new changes to airport security in the wake of the al-Qaeda parcel bomb plot, industry figures have warned.
Airport screening changes would leave passengers facing a raft of "inaffective [sic]", "useless" and unnecessary safeguards, warned Michael O'Leary, the boss of budget airline Ryanair.
But while he cautioned against overreacting, some industry experts called for an urgent overhaul of passenger security and the introduction of "package to package" checks.
A review of airline security is now likely after investigators concluded that the terrorists had designed a package to blow up passenger jets in a Lockerbie-style terrorist outrage. >>> Andrew Hough | Monday, November 01, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Passengers are needlessly removing their shoes and having their laptops inspected due to pointless security checks at airports, the chairman of British Airways has claimed.
Martin Broughton criticised “redundant” airport checks and said Britain should stop “kowtowing” to American demands for increased security.
He told the annual conference of the UK Airport Operators Association in London that many of the security checks should be scrapped.
Mr Broughton added that there was no need to “kowtow to the Americans every time they wanted something done” to bolster security on flights bound for the United States.
In a speech he said: “America does not do internally a lot of the things they demand that we do. We shouldn’t stand for that. We should say, 'we’ll only do things which we consider to be essential and that you Americans also consider essential’.” Read on and comment >>> Peter Hutchison | Wednesday, October 27, 2010
It would simplify things if Muslims were drawn aside and strip-searched. Muslims are the ones that caused all this mayhem; so Muslims are the ones who should pay the price of inconvenience. The fact that we, in this politically correct and mad world, are incapable of stiffening our spines to profile is pathetic.
We need to identify the cause of our problems, and then act accordingly. And no, please don't should racist. This isn't racist, it's just plain, good old-fashioned common sense. In any case, Muslims are not a race. In race, they are diverse; but in objective, they are pretty much united and one: their objective is to Islamize the world. And that's where the problem starts. – © Mark
This comment is also to be found here
Thursday, April 08, 2010
YAHOO NEWS!: A suspected shoebomber wrestled into submission by air marshalls as fighter jets were scrambled has turned out to be a Qatari diplomat reportedly trying to secretly smoke in the plane's toilet.
The man, who has not been named, was on board United Airlines flight 663 from Washington DC to Denver, Colorado.
Security officials have said he spent a suspicious amount of time in the toilet and other passengers could smell smoke when he emerged.
When the man told US air marshalls he had been trying to set fire to his shoes, jets were scrambled.
The Boeing 757 eventually landed safely at its destination and the suspect has been taken into custody. >>> Sky News | Thursday, April 08, 2010
Friday, April 02, 2010
So what exactly is Barack HUSSEIN Obama playing at? Is he compromising the safety of non-Muslims so as not to offend his Muslim brothers? The dropping of extra security against ‘terror-prone’ Muslim air travellers is a measure as stupid as it is dangerous. How long will it take for disaster to happen, I wonder? And who’ll have blood on his hands then? If Muslims are insulted by the extra security needed, then they should stop trying to kill infidels, and if they did that, there would no longer be any need for any extra-ordinary security measures at all. – © Mark
TIMES ONLINE: The Obama Administration, facing protests from allies, announced today that it will stop requiring extra airport security screening for all travellers from "terror-prone" Muslim nations.
The United States will instead institute a "tailored" security system that relies on profiling individual travellers, based on intelligence such as their physical description or travel pattern.
Officials said that the new system would result in fewer passengers being pulled aside when travelling to America.
President Obama announced a crackdown on travellers from 14 "terror-prone" countries — 13 largely Muslim nations plus Cuba — after the failed "underwear bombing" of a Detroit-Amsterdam flight on Christmas Day.
Passport-holders and passengers from those countries were required to undergo full body pat-downs and manual baggage search as part of extra airport screening.
The emergency measures were intended to prevent would-be bombers like the Nigerian suspect from boarding US-bound planes.
Farouk Adbulmutallab has been charged with trying to blow up the Northwestern Airlines Flight 253 after he allegedly tried to detonate explosives hidden in his underwear, suffering severe burns but failing to bring down the plane.
Mr Abdulmutallab, 25, a former student at University College London, is understood to have told investigators that he was trained as a suicide bomber by an al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen.
Mr Adbulmutallab's name was placed on a 550,000-name list of possible terror suspects, known as the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment database, or TIDE, after his father tipped off the US embassy in Nigeria about his concerns.
But Mr Adbulmutallab was never put on a 2,500-name "no-fly list" nor a 13,500-long "selectee" list requiring extra airport screening.
The blanket security measures imposed after the failed bombing affected all travellers from Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Yemen and Cuba.
The list offended allies like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Nigeria and Algeria who are partners of the United States in the fight against al-Qaeda. >>> James Bone, New York | Friday, April 02, 2010
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Controversial passenger profiling techniques could be used in response to the attempted Detroit plane bombing, the Home Secretary has announced.
Alan Johnson said he was looking at whether ''additional targeted profiling'' was needed to beef up airport security.
Passengers could be searched according to their race, ethnic background, age and gender, a decision that is likely to face opposition from civil rights groups.
Announcing a series of new security measures, Mr Johnson warned passengers would face further delays as more were searched before they board planes.
As well as body scanners, which will be brought in at Heathrow by the end of this month, passengers will see more sniffer dogs.
By the end of the year all British airports will be required to have trace equipment in place to detect explosives in the air.
In a House of Commons statement, Mr Johnson accepted no one technology would be ''100% effective''.
He acknowledged there were civil liberties concerns about profiling, but said ministers also had an ''overriding obligation'' to protect lives.
''We are examining carefully whether additional targeted passenger profiling might help to enhance airport security,'' Mr Johnson said. >>> | Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: The United States prevented Dutch authorities from installing full body scanners before the suspected Christmas Day bomb plotter passed through security at Amsterdam's airport, the Dutch government claimed today.
The Dutch claimed that they had been trying to install the machines for flights to the US since 2008 but had been blocked by US officials who wanted passengers to all destinations screened.
In light of the failed attack all passengers travelling from Holland to the US will now have to go through full body scanners the Dutch Interior Minister announced following discussions with the Americans.
Guusje ter Horst said the millimetre wave scanners that can see beneath passengers' clothes will be in use at Schiphol airport within three weeks and remain a permanent fixture for all flights to the US. >>> Joanna Sugden | Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Thursday, August 06, 2009
YNET NEWS: Does world remember why we needed airline security in first place?
Every time I travel overseas (and I must admit it happens often,) I undergo security checks at airports worldwide. Every time I ask myself how could it be that none of the billions of travelers who have been going the strict and annoying checks for years now dedicate a few seconds to thinking about the reason for this screening process, which has become an integral part of every flight by now. As if it’s pre-destined. Just like one needs a ticket and passport, one needs to stand in line and undergo a security check.
A whole generation (and in fact, two generations) of passengers are convinced that the need for security was born along with the first ever flight. However, we the older ones remember why every traveler now needs to undergo those checks. We also remember that many years ago we could fly from one location to another without any interruptions. The planes were slower perhaps, and there was no in-flight movie, but we could just board a plane and fly.
It is therefore odd that even those who still remember this ancient era do not think, or do not want to think, about the reason for the bothersome addition of security: The fact that one, Yasser Arafat, and the terrorist gangs he commanded, introduced the need of security checks after inventing the notion of hijacking planes for the purposes of extorting the Free World. >>> Noah Klieger | Thursday, August 06, 2009
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
THE TELEGRAPH: Tony Blair had to be rushed on to his plane at an Israeli airport after one of his British bodyguards accidentally fired his gun causing a security scare.
Nobody was hurt in the incident at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport and Mr Blair's spokesman said the former Prime Minister had not heard the gunshot.
But an Israeli police spokesman said that in the confusion Mr Blair was hurried on to his plane.
Accidental firings are taken extremely seriously in Israel and its Airports Authority has launched an inquiry.
"One of his bodyguards accidentally fired his gun, and the bullet hit the ground," said, Maayan Malkin, an IAA spokesman.
The incident took place as Mr Blair was leaving Ben Gurion, the main international airport in Israel, after spending a few days in the country in his capacity as international envoy for Palestinian development. >>> By Tim Butcher in Jerusalem | November 11, 2008
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