Expert explains airport security policies
Former Heathrow inspector addresses U3A
Yorkshire-born Dave Kirk had U3A members engrossed in his talk about aviation security at Settler’s Park’s Don Powis Hall on Thursday February 22.
Kirk, who together with his wife has alternated summers between England and Port Alfred for many years, had started working in the cargo facility at Heathrow Airport from the early 1960s.
Later, after working in various stages of management, he branched out into aviation security as an inspector of the airport’s security procedures before retiring in 2000.
As the threat of terrorist attacks increased, it became necessary to change and evolve security procedures to protect the travelling public and to prevent acts of terrorism in the future, Kirk said.
He worked with the department of transport in the UK, analysing past attacks and introducing methods of detection and prevention, to ensure the safety of travellers still in force today.
“Airport security many of you have been through it. Many of you have had to walk through metal detectors and had bags opened. You got to take your phones out your bag, take your belts off you’ve all been there, haven’t you?
“So it is important to give a bit of background as to why things are the way they are,” he said.
Kirk said his intensive training focused on “insiders” because terror attacks were sometimes hatched through instigators employed in the organisation. “It is very difficult to get through any airport security unless you are inside.
“Often journalists will impersonate terrorists and try to get through security systems to expose any shortcomings. If you [as an airline] have to prevent terrorist interventions then they [journalists] are just as important to stop because they are giving terrorists good publicity” [when trying to expose shortcomings], Kirk said.
Kirk highlighted some examples of terror attacks on the aviation industry, such as the Lockerbie Bombing of American Pan Am Flight 103, which was blown up over the southwestern town in Scotland in 1988. “The order was to blow up a plane and to make sure it’s an American one. Three terrorists had eight ounces of semtex sent off to Malta the plan was to load it in a suitcase and take it on board, walk away and detonate it and get off scot free.
“This flight started off in Frankfurt, where these individuals bought one-way tickets. The bombers are believed to have got off the plane at Heathrow leaving the semtex-filled suitcase on the flight.”
“The flight was however three hours late leaving Heathrow and the timer which was set to go off somewhere in the States detonated when the aircraft was over Lockerbie in Scotland instead, killing all 270 passengers and crew,” Kirk said.
Kirk said since that act, the laws regarding baggage have changed called the Triple AAA procedure. “Simply put this means you and your bag have to be on the same aeroplane,” he said.
The next one he highlighted from 2001 was Richard Reid, aka Abdel Rahim, who became known as the “shoe bomber”.
“Reid had converted to Islam and his plan was to take a bomb on board and conceal it in his shoe,” Kirk said. “Doc Martins were quite the rage and they provided a thick big heel and sole which he was going to hollow out and plant some explosives in there to detonate on the plane.
“His chosen target was an American Airline plane It was December and Richard had turned up at Paris airport to board his flight to Miami on 21 December 2001. He bought his ticket but was refused boarding rights because he had a few too many. He left the airport it was December, it was raining in Paris and he got drenched before sobering up.”
Kirk said Reid turned up sober the next day and was accepted to board the plane.
“He had cleverly substituted his Doc Martins laces with detonator chord but, unfortunately for Richard, having spent the night in rainy Paris the cord got wet and he couldn’t light it.
“He had to take his shoe off in the plane and put it on his table seat all the while desperately trying to no avail to light the detonator cord which attracted attention. He was arrested and security staff were able to disarm him.”
Kirk said today passengers are having to take shoes off before flights and other items such as jackets and caps as a direct result of the incident.
Kirk then referred to the Ann Murphy and Hindawi terror bombing incident of April 17 1986. This foiled attack was planned by Nezar Hindawi, a Jordanian national targeting an El Al flight departing from London’s Heathrow Airport. The plot involved his pregnant Irish girlfriend, Ann
Murphy, who had unknowingly carried the bomb in her hand luggage onto the aircraft.
Kirk told U3A members that Hindawi had told Murphy the bag he had given her was a birthday gift for his mother. He had asked her to hand it over to his mother once she [Murphy] had arrived in Israel. Hindawi apparently had told his girlfriend he would join her later.
Fortunately, security officials at the airport discovered the bomb during routine screening procedures and prevented a potential catastrophe.
“That’s why at airports you are always asked if you packed your bag yourself or if you are you carrying it for anyone else,” Kirk said.
Kirk said terrorists then came up with the idea of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), where cargo planes were targeted.
“A notable case was in 2010 where terrorists were going to place an IED in a printer in a cargo aircraft bound for East Midlands [area of UK] linked to an ink cartridge. They had placed replaced toner powder with PETN (military grade explosives) and would link this up with an electrical device placed in the control panel to a mobile phone and send the signal to the printer circuit board in the machine and detonate the PETN at the desired time via a phone call.”
But authorities had prior intelligence on the plan and managed to thwart it after the plane left Dubai with the parcel being intercepted before it arrived at its final destination, which was Chicago.
Kirk said to gasps from the audience that upon checking the mobile phone linked to this device, there was a missed call on it. “We are not sure how that happened and why it did not detonate.”
Since then, screening procedures have been enhanced with improved technology and the Solid Hague System was introduced in 2012, which requires all cargo on passenger planes to be screened at the originating airport.