Securing air travel

Ben Swagerman is SVP of KLM Security Services. Here he outlines some of the security challenges facing the aviation industry.

“We have reached a stage where there are too many measures that are not consistently applied. We need to find redundancies in the system”
-Ben Swagerman, KLM Security Services

EUI. How have you seen the issue of airport security intensify over the past 10 years and what has it meant for your airline?
BS. Clearly, aviation security has always been a big focus for us, and this has only intensified in recent years. I cannot speak for the airports (although there is a good deal of cooperation between us and them because we have to consult each other about measures proposed by the Civil Aviation Authority), but we have a huge corporate security department now that is geared towards preparing for implementation of those and other measures. We have a multi-layered security system, which is very complex and involves a good deal of cooperation between the airlines and the airports.

EUI. What does this involve from a security planning perspective?
BS. There is a clear division in terms of obligations for the airports and the airlines. Passenger screening, hand luggage screening, package screening for passengers are requirements for the airport security staff, whereas we have responsibility for securing aircraft, doing cabin security checks and searches, and cargo security. To have all the processes run smoothly there needs to be much consultation and discussions about how to manage all these processes. The ultimate goal is that security will have no impact on passengers in terms of delays and hassle.

EUI. I appreciate that you can’t speak for the airports, but many of the operations that you just described are actually dependent on close cooperation with the airport itself – for instance, securing the physical security of the aircraft. How have you addressed this challenge?
BS. For that we have specialist personnel who are involved in those processes that take place on the apron – the tarmac around the airplane. We have a system of access controls that are conducted by the cabin and corporate crew, and sometimes employees of the maintenance department. Access to the airport itself is the responsibility of the airport, but our cargo premises are guarded by airline personnel. And of course, we have the obligation to do the cabin security checks in the aircraft, which is done by our crew in every aircraft for every departing flight in Europe.

EUI. What role will technology play in tightening security around the planes and around cargo security? Are there any key technologies that you think will have a significant role to play in improving security within that environment?
BS. Yes. I think there’s a major role for technology in the sense that technology can help to better detect explosives or prohibited articles in general. From a security point of view, I think it’s very important to underline the need to have a balance between detection and deterrence, and in both aspects technology can help. However, it will never be the only thing we have to deploy to prevent unauthorised access or people bringing prohibited articles on board. There’s always a human factor involved. For instance, technology has to be used by screening personnel, so we have to look at how we can provide technology in the right places that complements the skills of the screeners. At Schiphol Airport, for example, we have deployed innovative body scanner technology for speeding up the passenger screening process, and in that sense it’s a very important layer of security – but it is just one layer.

EUI. And how do you ensure that the technologies you as an airline are integrating dovetail neatly with the technologies that the airport itself is integrating?
BS. The active millimetre wave technology, the body scanner, is a good example of the collaboration process. The airport had a plan to introduce this technology, and they proposed that KLM run a pilot with our cockpit and cabin crew to see what the results were like regarding detection of prohibited articles, and there were also some privacy and health concerns that needed to be addressed. So we spent many hours discussing how to use this technology and how to build up processes around it. And after the pilot was successful and we got approval for the use of this technology by the Cockpit and Crew Association, the airport decided to use millimetre wave scans in the passenger process.

Another example in the field of cargo screening is sniffer dogs. We as an airline transporting cargo make use of a system of regulated agents and known shippers that are certified by the government with the approval of the European Union. But while in Europe it’s enough to transport cargo within Europe in this supply chain security system, in the United States they require – 100 percent physical screening of cargo transported on passenger aircraft. We’ve tackled this problem by the deployment of sniffer dogs, and they are trained and skilled to detect explosives in cargo.

EUI. To what extent have the new EU airport security regulations impacted on your operations at KLM? Do you face any challenges in terms of complying with the new legislation?
BS. We’re currently in discussion with the European Commission about the details of the regulation. Its aim is to make aviation security more flexible, better harmonised throughout Europe, and to foster new technologies and new methods. It’s still under discussion and we have to wait to see what the exact impact will be on our operations, but I’m quite optimistic because I think the EU regulation initially approved by the council right after 9/11 was very detailed, but not too comprehensive. I think it’s a very good opportunity to get more flexible, more effective and more efficient security in the future.

EUI. Do you think it will have the effect of standardising security across Europe? Obviously as an international carrier you must work with many different countries – do you see much difference between the security standards at these different countries?
BS. In terms of the regulation, the rules in the Netherlands are the same as in the UK and the same as in France or Germany, but the implementation of those rules is quite different, and that’s not a very good thing for us as an airline. For example, one measure states that there has to be a cabin security check before the departure of the aircraft – the actual wording is that there should be an inspection of the seat pockets. Now you can say an inspection of seat pockets can be done physically (that is to say the employee opens the seat pocket), or can it be done visually. Of course, the aim of doing this is to see whether there are prohibited articles in the aircraft. There’s a lot of discussion about whether it should be visual or physical. That’s only one example. We have many different interpretations of the rules.

EUI. So hopefully this discussion about the new regulations will involve some guidelines for the implementation of these…
BS. Exactly, and one of the basic principles of the new framework is that the idea of one-stop security should be advanced in Europe. That is to say that once an aircraft is flying from one European airport to another before flying elsewhere, security checks only need to be performed once. So for example, if there are basic security checks done in Copenhagen and you fly to Amsterdam, those checks shouldn’t have to be repeated in Amsterdam before flying on to the UK or elsewhere. The European Commission is currently in negotiations with the US government as to whether they can accept each other’s security system in order to expand the one-stop security principle further afield, too.

EUI. Obviously one of the key trends of recent years has been rising passenger numbers. What sort of challenges does this present to you as an airline in terms of security?
BS. It presents a challenge in the sense that we have to be careful that the system won’t collapse in terms of waiting lines and hassle for passengers. The more passengers you have, the quicker the process needs to be. From a security point of view, having people in a crowded airport is a security risk in itself, which we saw in the attack on Glasgow Airport a couple of years ago, where a jeep filled with explosives was driven into one of the terminals. Fortunately there were no casualties, but the danger is, of course, that there will be in future.

I think you have to put the point of focus not on the airport, not on the aircraft, but far away from the airport. It’s all a matter of intelligence. Once you have the right intelligence you can intervene as soon as possible. I think the foiled Heathrow plot in August 2006 is a very good example. I think the UK government can be proud that they have a system in place in which they have good collaboration between the intelligence agencies, the airport and the police to prevent a strike in the earliest possible instance.

One of the interesting features of this case is that had the plotters been successful blowing up aircraft across the Atlantic, we never would have known what the threat was, because finding evidence in the Atlantic Ocean would have been impossible. The success of the 9/11 attacks was mainly due to having a compact organisation. One of the failures in the Heathrow plot was that it was a huge organisation, with many people involved, and that was our good fortune.

EUI. Now one of the challenges for security professionals in this industry is striking a balance between security and customer service. How do you address this challenge? BS. Of course the main principle is that we need to have secure flights, so we can never compromise on security. The same applies to safety. On the other hand, security must be smart and effective and efficient. One of the reasons we talk with manufacturers as well as regulators is to try to convince them that putting more and more measures and more and more obligations on airports and airlines is not the way forward. Security needs to be multi-layered, but I think we have reached a stage now where there are too many measures that are not consistently applied. We need to find some redundancies in the system without compromising on these security benefits.

Body scanners
Amsterdam’s pioneering Schiphol airport was the first major airport to use new body-scanning machines at security checkpoints to find metals and explosives hidden under clothing. The system, which uses harmless radio waves to display head-to-toe images of people, has since been expanded for use by other airports.

Going through the scanner takes about three seconds, allowing users to avoid metal detectors or body searches. For privacy, the digital images are viewed by security personnel in another room and deleted after they are viewed.

Schiphol handles about 160,000 passengers per day at peak times and is Europe’s fourth-busiest hub. So far the security scan is voluntary but officials are hoping to expand it to include all passengers, crew and personnel. Schiphol is one of the world’s most modern airports, with flat-panel screens, airport-wide web access, and iris-scanners already on offer to those who want to bypass passport lines.