israelinsider.com
Airlines worldwide look to emulate
El Al's security procedures.
El Al official website
At a time when airline security measures have taken on new
meaning, Israel's national carrier El Al is considered to set
industry standards in procedures protecting its passengers and
flights. El Al's sophisticated profiling, interrogation and inspection
methods have thwarted hijacking and bombing attempts in the
past, and may signal the direction that other airlines and airports
will follow in the coming months.
Within hours after hijacked airplanes were crashed into New
York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington D.C.
on September 11th, airline carriers from all over the world began
calling David Hermesh, president of El Al, seeking advice on how
to deal with airborne security threats.
For years El Al had distributed this advice free of charge. Last
year Hermesh decided to create a commercial unit to train
security agents at foreign airlines. "We didn't think that demand
would be as high as it will be now. It has accelerated, of course,"
he said. Several airlines and international aviation bodies have
approached Israel's Ministry of Transportation in the past few
weeks and expressed an interest in flight safety training courses
in Israel.
Israel is vigorously increasing its own security measures as well.
The Ministry of Transportation will not allow Israel-bound planes
to take off from airports not meeting all the new flight safety
requirements. The Ministry is planning an increased passenger
security levy, to cover the added expenses of new equipment and
improved security procedures, lessons of the September terror
attacks. Flight paths leading to and from Ben Gurion International
Airport have been rerouted away from city centers. After an
Internet expose, El Al stopped selling Swiss army knives in its
onboard duty free shop.
Rigorous questioning at passenger check-in
Passengers checking in for El Al and other airline departures at
Ben Gurion are requested to arrive three hours before their flight.
Cars, buses and taxis are examined as they enter the airport
compound by uniformed guards armed with submachine guns.
Plainclothes security guards are stationed at the airport
entrances, patrolling the terminal in loose-fitting jackets that
cover bulging weapons holsters. Cars are prevented from making
more than momentary stops to dispatch and unload passengers
and luggage.
Upon arrival, travelers are subjected to rigorous and
time-consuming questioning. While passengers are asked
perfunctory questions like -- "Who packed your bags?" and "Do
you have any weapons?" -- inspectors are really looking for
travelers giving evasive answers or hiding information.
Passengers can be interrogated separately by three different
screeners.
By questioning passengers, guards can quickly spot those who
appear nervous, Leo Gleser, a former El Al security officer and
head of security consulting firm ISDS recently told The
Associated Press. Gleser said passengers are profiled -- while
most Israeli Jews quickly pass through security inspection, Arabs
and certain foreigners are singled out for intense grilling.
In the case of the terrorists who hijacked airlines in the United
States on suicide missions, "not all of them would have made it
onto the plane" if the Israeli approach to security had been used,
Gleser said. "If you detect one, you can start to ask questions"
that might lead to the other members of the group.
Some pieces of luggage are opened and carefully inspected,
down to the contents of the smallest toothpaste tube.
Sophisticated high-tech explosives detection equipment is used to
examine all luggage, according to a former El Al security chief,
Tuvia Livneh. While similar scanning equipment is used for spot
checks at other airports, no other airline requires as many
luggage scans as El Al.
Passengers are questioned if their luggage has been in their
possession at all times and if anyone has asked them to carry
anything on the plane for them. In 1986, security guards detected
a bomb planted in the luggage of a pregnant Irish woman by her
Palestinian boyfriend, without her knowledge.
Security measures continue after check-in. Only passengers with
tickets and boarding passes are allowed to take the escalator to
the departure lounge. Metal detectors and additional questioning
by border control inspectors precede access to the duty free
area.
Flight departures have been occasionally delayed to allow officials
to remove checked baggage whose owner did not turn up on the
plane, as unaccompanied luggage could be a possible vehicle for
a bomb.
El Al terminals overseas are guarded by armed Israeli security
personnel, and security checks are just as strict as in Israel.
Additional security measures are required of other airlines
operating flights to Ben Gurion, but none are as strict in their
implementation as El Al. El Al's security measures do not finish on
the ground - the airline takes other precautions in the air as well.
Security measures continue onboard
Israeli security experts say that it would be practically impossible
for hijackers to commandeer a flight on El Al. Armed sky
marshals in plain clothes reportedly fly in passenger seats on El
Al flights -- a last line of defense should the airline's ground
security systems fail. In addition, El Al cockpits are sealed off by
two virtually impenetrable doors, which are not opened during
flight.
"In Israel nobody can enter the cockpit -- never, never, never,
never!" said former national police chief Assaf Hefetz. "It's
impossible by force or by threats to enter the cockpit, and it's
been like that for 20 years."
In 1970, a Palestinian hijacker was killed and another, Leila
Khaled, was captured when an armed guard foiled their hijacking
attempt during an El Al flight. At that time, Palestinians
successfully commandeered four flights of other airliners, flying
one plane to Cairo and three others to an empty Jordanian desert
airfield. After releasing the hijacked passengers, the terrorists
blew up the four captured planes, in fiery similarity to the
September 2001 terrorist attacks.
According to Livneh, whose company, Sital International, advises
airports and airlines on security matters, El Al is probably the
only airline that places all its cargo in decompression chambers
before takeoff. At least 10 planes have been blown up with
explosives set off by a barometric fuse, sensitive to altitude, he
told The Associated Press.
How do El Al's strict security measures affect its business? At a
time when airlines around the world are cutting back on flights
and personnel, El Al may be in a position to increase its market
share. Two weeks ago Delta canceled its remaining flights to
Israel and this week Swiss Air suspended all of its operations
worldwide.
"The big plus with El Al is its security," Gaby Arbib, head analyst
at National Consultants told the Jerusalem Post. "In the future,
that could be a substantive advantage for El Al because of its
years of experience."
According to reports, an increased fear of flying has led to a
surge in demand for El Al flights. The company, which has
suffered a major loss of business as tourism to Israel sharply
dropped after the outbreak of Palestinian violence last year, may
see its expected losses offset by renewed demand.
"Israelis were canceling their flights and then changing their
minds, so we've had a lot of crossover from people who have
expressed a desire to fly El Al," said Nachman Klieman, El Al's
spokesman. "The demand has been tremendous."
El Al was the first airline to resume international flights out of the
New York metropolitan area after America's airspace was
reopened following the September 11th attacks. The increased
demand for the airline's flights could be a temporary windfall if
competitors begin to emulate El Al security techniques. |
