Airport cargo security called `meaningless'

The "huge hole" in air cargo security is a disaster waiting to happen at Canadian airports, says the head of a leading cargo company.
"People just have no idea how exposed we are," said Ajay Virmani, president and chief executive officer of Cargojet, which partly operates out of Pearson International Airport.
Virmani, whose company ships 850,000 pounds of cargo by air each day, describes Transport Canada's security measures for cargo as "meaningless." He added his voice yesterday to growing concerns about what Transport Canada has acknowledged is an "air cargo security gap" at Pearson and other Canadian airports.
"The only two airlines that I think X-ray everything are Air India and (Israel's) El Al. I don't think any other carrier X-rays (cargo)," Virmani, whose company owns 14 planes, said in an interview.
Virmani said air carriers adhere to Transport Canada security regulations by conducting two basic checks – they accept cargo only from "known shippers" and they verify that documents are in order.
"We don't X-ray any of it," he said.
There's no way to verify that a shipment wasn't tampered with once it left the known shipper's warehouse, he said.
15/01/08 Sandro Contenta/Toronto Star, Canada

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Categories: Air India - International Jan 2008, Airports Jan 2008, cargo Jan 2008, Foreign Jan 2008, NACIL Jan 2008, Safety Jan 2008