Security — Page 481, Lesson 645

We're starting a new topic now — Security, Chapter 25. This is the part of your Air Law syllabus that deals with protecting the aircraft and everyone on board from unlawful interference. Let's walk through the operator's obligations first, because that's where the regulation begins. The first obligation is training programmes. An operator — that's the airline or company holding the operating licence — shall establish and maintain a training programme which enables crew members to act in the most appropriate manner to minimize the consequences of acts of unlawful interference. So the crew's training is about response: what to do when something happens, to reduce the damage and danger. But there's a second, separate training programme the operator must also establish and maintain. That one is to acquaint appropriate employees with preventive measures and techniques in relation to passengers, baggage, cargo, mail, equipment, stores and supplies, intended for carriage on an aeroplane. The purpose of this second programme is so those employees contribute to the prevention of acts of sabotage or other forms of unlawful interference. Notice the contrast: crew training is about minimizing consequences after an act; the other employees' training is about prevention before an act. Both are mandatory for the operator. Next, reporting acts of unlawful interference. Following an act of unlawful interference, the pilot-in-command shall submit, without delay, a report of such an act to the designated local authority. So the responsibility sits with the pilot-in-command, it must be done without delay, and it goes to the designated local authority — the specific authority that the state has appointed to receive these reports. Then we have the least-risk bomb location. Specialized means of attenuating and directing the blast should be provided for use at the least-risk bomb location. Let me unpack that. The least-risk bomb location is a designated place on the aeroplane where a suspected explosive device would be placed to cause the least damage. At that location, the aeroplane should carry specialized equipment — means of attenuating, meaning reducing the force of the blast, and directing the blast, meaning channeling it in a safer direction. So the aircraft is equipped so that if a bomb is moved there, the blast is contained and guided away from critical structure. Finally, carriage of weapons. Where an operator accepts the carriage of weapons removed from passengers, the aeroplane should have provision for stowing such weapons in a place so that they are inaccessible to any person during flight time. So if a passenger hands over a weapon — say at check-in or at the gate — the aircraft must have a designated stowage, and that stowage must keep the weapon inaccessible to anyone during flight time. That's the key limitation: no person on board can reach it while the flight is in progress. Now we move to a different source — 25.23, Extracts from Annex 9, which is the ICAO Annex on Facilitation. This is about the smooth movement of passengers and crew through airports, balanced against security. The first point is transit and transfer of passengers and crew. Contracting States — that's the states that have ratified the Chicago Convention — should ensure that physical facilities at airports are provided, where the volume and nature of the traffic so require. So it's conditional: the facilities are required only where traffic volume and nature justify them. What facilities? Whereby crew and passengers in direct transit on the same aircraft, or transferring to other flights, may remain temporarily without being subject to inspection formalities. Direct transit means staying on the same aircraft; transferring means moving to a different flight. Both groups should be able to remain temporarily without going through inspection formalities — except for aviation security measures, or in special circumstances. So security checks still apply; it's the customs and immigration-style inspection formalities that are waived. And there's an important note: this provision is not intended to prevent the application of appropriate narcotics control measures. So even though we're facilitating transit, drug control measures can still be applied. The excerpt ends with the heading "Inadmissible persons" — that's the next topic we'll pick up, about passengers who are not allowed to enter a state. But for now, you have the operator's security obligations and the facilitation principles. Let's pause there.