|
ThatDamnedPanda -> RE: The Airline Security System Works; It Really Does! (12/30/2009 5:41:04 PM)
|
You know, I've always felt that the whole world could learn a hell of a lot from the Israelis. Nobody does airline security like the Israelis. Name the one country that every Muslim extremist dreams of wiping off the face of the globe, and then check and see when the last time was that somebody hijacked one of that country's planes (I'll save you the trouble; it was 1968.) Anyway, add those two data points, and the conclusion to which it'll probably lead you is that they know a thing or two about protecting their airplanes from religious lunatics. Here's a snippet from an article -
quote:
El Al is renowned for its strict security procedures. It has armed guards at every ticket counter - many of whom are former Israeli soldiers. It also has undercover agents on every plane and armed guards at every ticket counter. Aircrafts' cockpits are protected with double doors.
The difference between the Israeli and the American systems, he explains, is that the Israelis are looking for the terror suspect, while the Americans are looking for weapons. At Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport, passengers - in particular non-Israelis - are interrogated at length by highly-trained screeners while plain-clothes security officials watch for suspicious behaviour.
Outside Israel, travellers experience thorough searches of their luggage, including not just repeated X-rays but also swabs to test for explosives and lengthy questioning. But some passengers have reported that these measures are discriminatory and sometimes unpleasant, with Palestinians and their friends subjected to much stricter procedures, including body searches. El Al uses rigorous computerised passenger profiling systems, which apparently looks for anomalies in a traveller's itinerary, finances and personal profile.
Link
Not every method they use would be practical to adopt on a global scale, of course. Part of the reason they do such a good job is that they have a very small target to defend. They've only got about 40 planes, whereas Delta-Northwest alone has about 750. But nevertheless, there's a lot that other countries can learn from their fundamental approach to screening passengers. For example, one layer of their security process is predicated on the presumption that someone who is about to commit suicide is under enormous psychological stress, and their people are thoroughly trained to spot certain physical indicators of such stress - excessive sweating, irregular breathing, certain eye movements, vocal inflections, even skin tone. Obviously, this isn't infallible, because these physical indicators can also be found in a lot of people who are just scared to death of flying, but the point is, it's one small tool that can get you part of the way toward the goal of safer travel. I really think the FAA would do well to pick their brains a bit.
|
|
|
|
