Latest air scare puts focus on global cargo security
Budget airline boss Michael O’Leary has warned that air passengers may be subjected to “ludicrous” new security measures in the wake of the revelation that two packages containing sophisticated bombs were intercepted en route from Yemen via express freight giants UPS and FedEx.
The Ryanair chief said authorities might now make travel “even more uncomfortable and tedious” for travellers.
In the first indication of the impact on travellers, toner cartridges over 500g will be banned from hand baggage on UK flights.
One device found at the UK’s East Midlands airport on Friday had left Yemen on a passenger aircraft before it was switched to a cargo plane at the UPS hub in Cologne.
The bomb was found hidden in a printer cartridge posted in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa.
The second device, found in Dubai, was carried on two Qatar Airways passenger flights before it was intercepted
The discovery of the bombs following a tip-off from an al-Qaeda member who handed himself in to Saudi authorities, has exposed the deadly threat from explosive devices hidden in freight consignments.
Norman Shanks, former head of security at airport operator BAA, told the BBC that cargo checks were less exacting than those on passengers.
“If you put a parcel into UPS, you have no way of knowing what flight it is going to go on,†he said. “It could end up on a passenger flight.â€
The UK airline pilots’ union, BAR, said it had been warning for years of cargo being a weak link in air travel that could be exploited by terrorists.
There is no standard procedure for checking airfreight and regulations vary from country to country.
The United States had a target for screening 100 percent of air freight on passenger flights by August of this year, but it is unclear whether this goal has been met.
The latest bomb scare in the air followed calls last week from airline bosses that existing security procedures such as shoe and laptop checks should be scrapped.
Ian Jarrett
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