BA chairman calls for airport security profiling
20.04.11
An airline pilot and a Yemeni student should not be subject to the same airport security checks, the chairman of British Airways has said. Sir Martin Broughton said that there should be ‘security light’ lanes for trusted frequent flyers, the FT reports.
He was also scathing about checks the US requires for passengers flying from the UK to the US, which he said had seen a BA board member selected for ‘additional screening’. The director was in good company as 'well-known celebrities such as Henry Kissinger also get picked out, as do a number of infants.'
Calling for ‘a risk-based approach to security rather than a one-size-fits-all based approach’, in a speech to the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in London yesterday, Sir Martin asked: ‘Is it sensible to run exactly the same security checks on pilots – each and every time they fly – as, for example, a Yemeni student?’
‘Some people like to use a different word to describe risk management. It is profiling, which some people regard as a pejorative term. It is alleged to carry discriminatory overtones. Such concerns are misplaced, and completely miss the point. Making everybody suffer inconvenience in the name of uniformity doesn’t make any sense at all and reduces the quality of security by dissipating resources.’
‘Surely the flight crew need to be the ultimate trusted traveller. Let’s face it, they don’t need a bottle of hydrogen peroxide to do their damage if that’s what they were intent on,’ he said ! And in a final dig at the US he added: ‘More parochially, I can’t understand why a passenger who has safely flown into the UK can’t be allowed to fly out again on a transit basis without further screening.’
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