Airport Security and Underpants

3rd Dec 2010

Who would have thought it?

A pair of men's underpants has sent the world's aviation security authorities and governments into a right spin, which could result in air marshals being on planes coming in and out of Phuket.

Security at airports around the world, including small but vitally important ones like Phuket International Airport (PIA), is about to get a major shakeup in wake of the "underpants" bomber incident in the United States on Christmas Day last year.

That is when a young Nigerian imbued with terrorist intentions to kill as many people as possible on a Northwest Airlines flight approaching Detroit from Amsterdam in Holland, was overpowered by passengers before he could activate plastic explosives strapped to his body.

He became known as the "underpants" bomber because the explosives were placed somewhat close to his' crown jewels' in his underpants.

The resulting fallout from this oh-so-close disaster could include the introduction of American style sky marshals on flights in the Asian region, including Thailand.

It was a wakeup call to the international aviation community. As Japan's transport minister Seiji Maehara said at a recent Asia-Pacific security conference in Tokyo, held to specifically examine increased measures resulting from the Detroit incident: 'While we strengthen security measures, new forms of terrorism may possibly be planned to outdo them.'

This was from a country like Japan where the likelihood of a similar attempted bomb attempt is quite low. The same could be said of Thailand. While bombs go off with alarming regularity in the deep South because of the insurgency there, and even around Bangkok under suspiciously strange circumstances, Thailand is not high on the list of countries where a terrorist is likely to strike on an aircraft.

Nonetheless, no-one can afford to be complacent these days. Consequently, at the Tokyo security conference Asia-Pacific countries, including Thailand, vowed to boost international security standards and measures, including screening technology.

In fact there have been three such conferences since January in Europe and North and South America in response to the "underpants" bomber incident. Out of these meetings the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) a United Nations body dealing with aviation security, will meet in September to map out an overall improvement in international aviation security.

The Asia-Pacific conference agreed to do things like share expertise and best practices in areas such as screening and inspection techniques, weapons detection, explosive and hazardous materials handling and the4 development of human resources such as sky marshals.

(Note: Sky marshals are undercover law enforcement or counter terrorist agents on board commercial aircrafts to counter aircraft hijackings. Sky marshals may be provided by airlines such as Israel's El Al (who provide sky marshals on every flight), or by government agencies such as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, German Federal Police, US Federal Air Marshal Service or the United Kingdom Metropolitan Police.)

While these discussions and preparations are going on, have no fear, here in Thailand quite a few security measures are already in place, although in the past sometimes at Bangkok and Phuket airports the screening process has been somewhat "relaxed." This has, thank goodness, tightened up in recent times.

Some of the restrictions most travelers will be familiar with, such as liquids, aerosols and gels no more than 100 ml each and placement of containers in transparent, re-sealable plastic bags have been in place in Thailand since June 2007.

At Suvarnabhumi in Bangkok measures to stop an unauthorized occupation like that of the Yellow Shirts in 2008 are in force.

But you think these measures are restrictive, try entering the United States after the "underpants" bomber fallout. A small sample of what can happen.

- Shoes off.

- Children, including toddlers and babies frisked from top to bottom.

- Closer checks of carry-on luggage than before, with people being sent back to check their luggage and even remove certain items, although electronic items and, thank goodness, the good old book, are still allowed.

- Tne carry on item has become normal in places like Europe and in flights between the United States and Canada because of the sheer volume of flights.

One piece of good advice: with security measures continuing to get tighter, show up at the airport earlier than you have ever before, particularly in travelling to places like the U.S.

The United Kingdom is also getting a lot tougher. Here are some of its post 'underpants' measures.

- All transit passengers who travel via the UK will now be required to leave their plane and undergo full screening checks before resuming their journeys out of the UK.

- There will be increased searches of passengers.

- Airports will make increasing use of explosive trace detection technology and sniffer dogs.

- Airports will be introducing advanced imaging technology, currently referred to as 'body scanning.

The body scanning measures has raised concerns about individual privacy so the UK authorities have laid out some ground rules. These include:

- Passengers will be randomly selected for body scanning in the same way that they are currently selected for other aviation security measures such as the removal of footwear and conventional hand searches.

- This selection will not be linked to race, ethnic origin, gender, or age

- Children will be scanned in the same way that adults will be. Parents/guardians will be able to remain with a child throughout the process as long as they follow the instructions of security staff and their presence does not obscure the scanned image.

Of course many observers say that all this intrusiveness at airports could be avoided if governments introduced profiling measures whereby the profile of individuals - their race, nationality, criminal record, if any; etc are all downloaded onto computer and a potential threat to security is identified well in advance.

It does sound good in theory, but in an age when terrorists are increasingly home grown converts to violent action, such as the young Nigerian who came from a well-to-do family, such profiling will not pick up every "underpants" bomber -with frightening consequences.

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