Countries must work together on air safety
http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/1971238,CST-EDT-esther04.article
January 4, 2010
BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA
I was flying back to Chicago from the Dominican Republic two days before Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly tried to blow up U.S.-bound Flight 253 on Christmas Day, chuckling about how easy it would have been for some nutball to hijack my plane.
To begin with, my family and I waltzed through the last security checkpoint clad in bulky Chicago-weather-appropriate hoodies and were never asked to take off our shoes. Realizing that in the shuffle I'd forgotten to take my laptop and camera out of my carry-on bag -- and thinking I was about to get in trouble -- I informed the security person that there were electronics about to go through the machine, but he waved it off with a "no problem" and a smile
Even as I type this, I'm marveling that no one blinked about the 20-inch souvenir wooden machete that one of us took aboard the plane.
The laxity of security at that particular airport underscores a critical weakness in our air travel security system -- we must rely on other countries to hold up their end of the screening and security conundrum. Under rules established by the International Convention on Civil Aviation, each country is responsible for the safety and security oversight of its own air carriers. Although other countries can conduct certain specified surveillance activities -- principally involving the inspection of required documents and the physical condition of aircraft -- our Federal Aviation Administration is not permitted to evaluate a foreign carrier within its own sovereign state.
That's not so odd. I can't imagine that anyone here would be thrilled about some other country's designated government agents being posted at our airports to inspect U.S. aircraft bound for their countries. It is true that nobody from the United States has attempted a terrorist attack against any other country, but you see the stickiness of the issue.
Our conciliator president must approach air travel safety not solely as a domestic issue, but as one that requires even greater international cooperation.
In the days after the Christmas Day attack that thankfully never was, President Obama rightly railed about all the missed signals and unconnected dots that allowed Abdulmutallab to board an American-bound plane, calling it a "systemic failure" of our nation's intelligence apparatus. But something more is needed -- a conversation about how the entire international community can put aside political posturing and act as one to improve security.
Terror threats and the measures we take to counter those threats -- including ever greater security screening at airports -- already make air travel a punishing gauntlet for business and pleasure travelers. This can only hurt countries around the world that are still struggling to rebound from the global recession.
It galls me that our knee-jerk response to terrorist threats will be to harass millions of completely innocent, nonviolent people, from all over the world, by imposing extremely personal security checks -- even monitoring their toilet time while in the air -- rather than approach the problem with pragmatism and greater international cooperation. Governments need to work together better to share information and establish baseline safety standards.
I sure hope that if I were to go through the Dominican Republic's airport today it would be a much, much different scene: my shoes and hoodie would come off and more attention would be given to all the electronics and potential weapons in my carry-on.
But how long will it be before the predictable "day after" hyper-attention to security fades, given the daily grind of moving millions of people around the globe?
Yes, yes, the "global" aspect of this issue is crucial....trouble is this is where all those infernal differences among nations clogs the wheels...I swear it will take the proverbial Martian invasion to finally unite us!!
Posted by: jack spatafora | January 09, 2010 at 11:36 AM