Transport Canada has warned airlines and airports to operate on “high alert” following the Dec. 25 attempted bombing aboard a Northwest Airlines flight, the Globe and Mail reported Jan. 12.
The reminder to be vigorous with screening measures comes as a result of concerns that more terrorists trained in Yemen may be headed to North America.
According to Transport Canada, current measures in place—including limiting carry-on baggage and frisking each enger prior to boarding—are appropriate steps to manage the potential threat posed by terrorism. Further plans to install full-body scanners in major Canadian airports are in the works for the spring.
Current levels of airport security border on the theatrical, subjecting thousands of well-intentioned travelers to intensive searches. This method creates hype and hysteria, but it misses the mark where addressing the root problem of terrorism is concerned.
Rather than further increasing airport security, money would be better spent on surveillance and intelligence.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man charged with the Dec. 25 attempted bombing, was permitted to fly despite his father warning U.S. authorities about the young man’s budding extremism—a fact that indicates the main issue is a lack of clear communication surrounding the no-fly list.
By paying closer attention to people who have been labeled threats and finding a more effective way to manage no-fly lists, intelligence authorities would take a solid step towards reducing the threat of terrorism.
Patting down engers prior to flight is a well intentioned but unreliable form of security control. Several areas on any traveler’s body must be left untouched and a brief frisking is unlikely to catch small explosive devices hidden in strategic places.
Proposals to introduce full-body scanners in Canadian airports are progressive, although loopholes will still exist in the security process. Flight attendants are not always subjected to the same searches as engers, nor are airport employees who work past the security gates.
While travel methods like trains have virtually no security checks, danger from terrorism remains low. But threats of terrorism have wreaked havoc on air travel.
It’s unfortunate the days of traveling by air with relative ease are gone, while airplane engers still cannot consider themselves 100 per cent protected.
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