Mumbai: Spaced apart by 99 days, the two big terror attacks of this year have targeted airports, first Brussels and then Istanbul forcing, for the first time since 9/11, a rethink of what aviation security should come to mean. Till now, it was synonymous with airline security and largely involved steps taken to prevent airplane hijacks.
About 3.5 billion people board flights annually across the globe, passing through airports that are not secured as these as not viewed as a possible ground zero for terror attacks. The two recent bombings are then significant in that it's for the first time that in six months alone, the number of airport terror attack casualties have crossed 50. "The entire aviation security is designed to prevent terrorists from boarding the planes,'' said a senior intelligence officer, asking anonymity . "The kind of security that protects an airport doesn't exist,'' he says, adding that in India, Srinagar is the only airport that is protected. "To reach Srinagar airport, one has to undergo security check about half a kilometre before one can even reach the terminal building,'' he says. But that level of security cannot be provided to other airports like the ones in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai as all are located in congested areas."You need strategic depth and that is not possible with these airports,'' he adds.
30/06/16 Manju V/Times of India
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About 3.5 billion people board flights annually across the globe, passing through airports that are not secured as these as not viewed as a possible ground zero for terror attacks. The two recent bombings are then significant in that it's for the first time that in six months alone, the number of airport terror attack casualties have crossed 50. "The entire aviation security is designed to prevent terrorists from boarding the planes,'' said a senior intelligence officer, asking anonymity . "The kind of security that protects an airport doesn't exist,'' he says, adding that in India, Srinagar is the only airport that is protected. "To reach Srinagar airport, one has to undergo security check about half a kilometre before one can even reach the terminal building,'' he says. But that level of security cannot be provided to other airports like the ones in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai as all are located in congested areas."You need strategic depth and that is not possible with these airports,'' he adds.
30/06/16 Manju V/Times of India
