Page 2 - Airport Security

UK airports get more time to put in new scanners allowing liquids, laptops

Drink it or bin it: That phrase should have become history this summer at all UK airports. But it's set to persist for at least another year after the British government said it will grant extensions to several large UK airports unable to meet the June 1 deadline to fully install new scanning technology. The airports include London's two biggest, Heathrow and Gatwick. The new scanners use computed tomography, commonly known as a CT scan, to produce clearer images. They are being rolled out globally, including in the US and across Europe, and will allow passengers to go through security with 2 litres (70 ounces) of liquid in their hand luggage rather than the current paltry 100 millilitres (3.5 ounces). They will also mean laptops and tablets won't need to be removed from bags saving even more time. The restrictions were introduced around the world in 2006 following a foiled terror plot to blow up planes flying from London to the US with homemade liquid bombs. They were not expect

DGCA changes rules, mandates alcohol test for 25% airport employees

A total of 189 people working at 59 Indian airports were found drunk on duty in the first half of 2023, marking a 32 percent year-on-year increase, as per the data from DGCA

Haneda airport incident: DGCA issues notice to prevent runway incursions

To prevent instances of runway incursions at airports, aviation watchdog DGCA has asked stakeholders to put in place a runway safety team at all airports and adopt technologies to improve situational awareness, among other measures. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has issued a circular in view of the collision of planes due to runway incursion at the Haneda airport in Japan last month. Apart from establishing a runway safety team at all aerodromes and ensuring their effective functioning, the regulator has emphasised on comprehensive training for pilots, air traffic controllers, aircraft maintenance engineers, and drivers operating inside an airport. Air Traffic Controllers (ATCs) should ensure that stop bars are switched on to signal a stop and switched off to indicate traffic may proceed. In no case, aircraft or vehicles be instructed to cross illuminated red stop bars, DGCA said in a release on Monday. Further, the watchdog said that aerodromes, ATCs and airline

Centre sanctions over 150 CISF commandos security cover for Ayodhya airport

The Union home ministry has sanctioned a more than 150 personnel strong CISF anti-terrorist cover for the Ayodhya airport, days before the high-profile consecration ceremony at the Ram temple on January 22, official sources said on Tuesday. The 'Maharishi Valmiki International Airport, Ayodhyadham' has become the 68th civil airport terminal in the country to come under the umbrella of the specialised aviation security group (ASG) of the central force. The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) will provide an anti-terrorist and anti-sabotage cover to the Ayodhya airport that was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in December 2023, official sources said. The force will frisk passengers and their baggage and secure the perimeter of the facility, like what is done at other national and international airports, they said. An armed contingent of more than 150 CISF personnel under the command of a Deputy Commandant rank officer has been sanctioned by the Ministry of Home Affair

Japan's air safety experts search voice data from debris after collision

A team of transport safety officials searched for a voice recorder from the severely burned fuselage of a Japan Airlines plane on Friday, seeking crucial information on what caused a collision with a small coast guard plane on the runway at Tokyo's Haneda airport. Meanwhile, JAL also started using heavy machinery to remove some of the debris for storage in a hangar to allow the runway to reopen. Six experts from the Japan Transport Safety Board, walked through the mangled debris of the Airbus A350-900 that was lying on the runway searching for the voice data recorder. JTSB experts have so far secured both the flight and voice data recorders from the coast guard's Bombardier Dash-8 and a flight data recorder from the JAL plane to find out what happened in the last few minutes before Tuesday's fatal collision. All 379 occupants of JAL Flight 516 safely evacuated within 18 minutes of landing as the aircraft was engulfed in flames. The pilot of the coast guard plane also escaped, but i

Noida airport: Runway, ATC to be ready by Mar 2024; 7,200 workers stationed

The runway and the air traffic control (ATC) tower of the upcoming airport in Noida are expected to be ready by March 2024, according to project officials. During a review meeting, S P Goyal, the additional chief secretary to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and additional chief secretary, Civil Aviation, Uttar Pradesh government, was informed by the officials that about 7,200 workers haver been deployed and construction work is being carried out day and night for timely completion of the Greenfield project. "First of all, the construction work of ATC tower was reviewed. The ATC tower is to be built with eight floors, out of which the work of six floors has been completed and the work of the last two floors is underway. The height of the ATC tower is 30 meters and the construction will be completed by February 2024," according to an official statement. "The construction work of the runway at the airport is almost 70 per cent complete. The airstrip work is targeted to be completed by .

25,000 prohibited items removed from air passengers' bag every day: BCAS

From lighters to scissors to knives, around 25,000 prohibited items are taken out from the baggage of air passengers at airports in a day in the country and handling each of these items takes around three minutes, according to aviation security agency BCAS. As the air traffic in the country continues to rise, BCAS chief Zulfiquar Hasan on Monday stressed that time diverted for such prohibited items in the hand and check-in baggage can be otherwise utilised by the agency to deal with other graver threats. "We screen about 8 lakh bags which are hand baggage and about 5 lakh items that are checked in by passengers. This is a huge number," he said and added that on a daily basis, an average of around 25,000 prohibited items are found. In the hand baggage, 26 per cent of the prohibited items found are cigarette lighters, 22 per cent are scissors, 16 per cent are knives and 14 per cent liquids/ aerosols. When it comes to check-in baggage, Hasan said that around 44 per cent of the ...

Full body scanners to be deployed in phased manner at airports: BCAS chief

Full body scanners will be deployed at airports in a phased manner and the process is expected to start at major airports within a year, BCAS chief Zulfiquar Hasan said on Monday and stressed that there will not be any privacy issues as those have already been sorted out worldwide. He also said that there will be options for passengers who have health issues in case they cannot use such scanners. The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) has set a deadline for the end of next year for the deployment of full body scanners at airports. At a briefing in the national capital, Hasan said BCAS has given a deadline but there are procurement cycle issues as airport operators get these machines from the same two or three vendors around the world. To begin with, full body scanners will be deployed at major airports like Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. "We will deploy full-body scanners and it will be in a phase-wise process. We have given orders for a few airports and we hope that this proc

Parl panel suggests setting up specialised security agency for airports

A Parliamentary panel on Monday asked the government to look at the feasibility of setting up a specialised security agency for airports amid rising air passenger traffic. Besides, the committee has proposed constituting a special airline wing to deal with police and courts in unruly air passenger behaviour cases and urged aviation regulator DGCA to enforce a zero-tolerance policy for such incidents. These are among the recommendations made by the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, which tabled its report in Parliament on Monday. Out of a total of 353 units deployed by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), 66 units or 18.7 per cent are deployed at the airports, the panel said and added that the civil aviation sector is expected to grow at a faster pace and that will increase the need for manpower engaged in providing security at airports. "The committee, therefore, recommends that the Ministry of Civil Aviation may examine

Shah inaugurates centralised security control centre for 66 airports

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday inaugurated a centralised aviation security control centre here that will monitor all threats and social media chatter for the 66 civil airports currently under the CISF's security cover. The aviation security control centre (ASCC) will access "24x7 real-time data monitoring and trend analysis of passengers and air traffic", the force said in a statement. The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) is the national civil aviation protection force. It guards 66 passenger airports out of the total 134 operational in the country. The paramilitary force said the ASCC is equipped with cutting-edge technologies such as a data centre, research and development lab and a war room to deal with emergencies. The centre will get real-time feed from each of the security operations control centres (SOCCs) operational at these 66 airports that include the "extremely busy and hyper-sensitive" civil aviation facilities in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Jammu, ...

Pak's aviation body chief slams airport security for 'harassing passengers'

Pakistan's aviation body chief has accused the customs and security officials of harassing passengers at the country's airports to extort money. Khaqan Murtaza, Director General of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), made the allegations while briefing the Senate Standing Committee's meeting on Aviation at the Parliament House on Monday, Dawn newspaper reported on Tuesday. Murtaza alleged that the Customs, Airport Security Force (ASF) and Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) officials "continue to collect money by harassing passengers," the paper said. The meeting chaired by Senator Hidayatullah highlighted the lack of coordination among agencies at airports and pointed out impolite attitudes with passengers, some participants had experienced. "You will not find any uniformed armed personnel at any airport in the world," Murtaza said. "It looks like an aggressive atmosphere that is unheard of elsewhere. It feels as if we live in a cantonment." Committee Chairman Hidayatullah also raised .

Home Affairs Ministry holds high-level review meeting on airport security

According to sources, the recent incidents of misbehaviour in airlines were discussed during the meeting, which lasted for more than half an hour

Delhi airport says peak-hour flights reduced at T3 to ease congestion

Country's busiest airport, which has already brought the number down from 22 an hour to 19, may shift more flights to other terminals

Airports rearranging departures, arrivals to avoid congestion: Scindia

A lot of this congestion is today taking place in Delhi and to a certain degree in Mumbai, and not so much in other airports

Security staff strike forces closure of Belgian airport, causes disruption

A major airport in Belgium was forced to close and cancel all departing flights until Wednesday, following a strike staged by the contracted security agency's staff

1,900 private guards to take up non-core security roles at airports

Their functions will include segregating passengers at departure/arrival gates, checking documents in security hold areas

London's Heathrow airport says passenger cap has eased travel chaos

The cap has cut down on last-minute flight cancellations and improved baggage delivery and on-time planes, Heathrow said in a statement.

San Francisco airport worker stabbed, suspect held; 3rd incident in 1 month

A worker at the San Francisco International Airport was stabbed Tuesday, and a suspect was in custody, police said. It was the third security incident in a month at the airport south of San Francisco

Delhi airport introduces RFID-enabled tag to track check-in luggage

The Delhi airport has introduced personalised baggage tag, enabled by radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, which will give passengers real-time information, a statement

84 workers at 42 airports found drunk on duty between Jan '21-Mar '22: DGCA

While many of the workers who failed the alcohol tests were employed by airport operators, a significant section of them were employed by other companies which work at the airport