Fear
Air Cargo Security Doomsday


Harald Zielinski is worried.
In Frankfurt, Germany, the Lufthansa Cargo
Head of Security sees danger ahead if some conclusions that were indicated
at a recent IATA cargo security meeting with top industry people in Geneva
are left to stand.
As European Union and the rest of the world
move to implement even stricter air cargo security procedures for the
passenger/cargo combination business, an uneven and unexplained policy
that would allow all-cargo carriers relief from some basic fundamentals
of screening personnel and other procedures could be enacted.
Harald Zielinski believes that air cargo
could be dangerously exposed.
“The plans currently under discussion
do not take into consideration that a terrorist could take control of
a freighter aircraft and use it as a weapon.
“The use of a freighter aircraft in
a terrorist incident would be catastrophic especially if the event took
place over a populated area.
“The negative effect would be dramatically
enhanced by using a freighter loaded with the right mixture of dangerous
goods as a dirty bomb.
“While there are plenty of regulations
on the table that have and will further tighten procedures for the passenger/cargo
combination business there is little consideration being afforded the
operating crew or attendants onboard all-cargo aircraft.
“Put another way, in an atmosphere
of enlightened total security it cannot be up to a company alone to assure
the safety and protection of its employees who transport and handle freight.”
“What is needed is enlightened re-regulation
of security procedures that is the result of a wide ranging independent
study of the current situation.”
The carriers should fund the study and report
back to IATA Cargo Security, the EU and others who are tasked with formulating
the new security rules.
“Lufthansa Cargo stands ready to support
and pay its fair share in an effort to achieve an unbiased report.
“The carriers, both all-cargo and
the combination business and the entire industry have too much at stake
to allow anything less than a total no-holds barred review before any
new laws are voted upon.”
Harald Zielinski leans back in his chair
and thinks for a moment saying:
“If somebody enters the air cargo
security field without insomnia, this job may help you to get it.
“The reason for that is not just anxiety
or doubt in one’s own capabilities, it is the worry whether security
can be guaranteed in all areas including locations that are not under
my direct influence.”
Security regulations in effect since just
after 9/11 set standards in aviation security for all EU airports.
But now in 2006 these regulations that were
based on standards “of the time” are in for regulatory overhaul.
While Mr. Zielinski declines to say it out
loud, reportedly there is a big lobbying effort on both sides of the Atlantic
and elsewhere by the integrators especially FedEx and UPS against any
further regulations of their all-cargo operations by EU or IATA.
His argument is without personalities.
He faces each day with a mission to keep
air cargo at Lufthansa safe.
“For
a moment just look at the math.
“At Frankfurt Airport alone there
are some other 30,000 people either working in the restricted airport
area or who are permitted access to it. Figure
as the air cargo moves it will encounter another thirty thousand at a
major transit airport and then perhaps another ten thousand at the airport
of destination.
“Despite all the screening and checking
and other security redundancies somebody will slip through.
“Terrorists have a distinct learning
aptitude.
“The knowledge that a freighter aircraft
is less secure enhances its risk as a terrorist weapon.
“There simply cannot be a separate
but unequal approach to air cargo security”
We are thinking, cops are different.
The good ones usually operate in almost
total anonymity, keeping the peace and guarding the home folks, while
honoring their partners and respecting the force in what is best described
as a thankless job, and at worst tragic, punctuated by those awful mournful
bagpipes.
Sometimes good cops get civilian jobs.
Often what that means is a standout individual
such as Ray Kelly, the current New York City Police Commissioner or on
the air cargo side Harald Zielinski at Lufthansa Cargo.
Harald Zielinski, who at times refers to
himself in the third party as a “German with a Polish name,”
quietly sizes up the room where we are meeting.
We are thinking that this is one guy we
would not want on our case if we ever jumped to the dark side.
Then during a break we silently wonder what
this former uniformed policeman who served as a neighborhood cop in Frankfurt,
(as did his father Leo, who just celebrated his 83rd birthday this past
weekend ), notices about the people sitting around the small restaurant?
Can he spot a criminal?
We decide asking him to reveal his observations
might be like asking somebody to give away a company secret, so the thought
is dropped.
Back at the airport, Lufthansa Cargo Frankfurt
is among the most secure gateway environments in the world.
The entire air cargo area is like some giant
onion with layers of security that must be peeled away with verified identification
before entering into various parts of the cargo operation.
Meantime video cameras by the thousands
it seems are recording everything.
At JFK by comparison, in New York City,
where terror ruled for a black September day in 2001, security nowhere
nearly as tight or evident as this state-of-the-art security lockdown
mega air cargo base that Lufthansa Cargo operates in high gear 24/7.
But Harald Zielinski is on a mission, a
crusade if you will, and he is out to tell the world where the German
national airline’s cargo division stands.
“Everyone agrees that air cargo security
is the number one topic of concern and discussion today.
“Any meeting of air cargo executives
in the world that is not looking for ways to expand and improve security
should be doing just that.
“Better security insures the success
of the industry.
“Even the recent economic challenges
in the rising costs of fuel pale in comparison to the mounting threat
to air cargo from terrorists.
“The emergence last week of Osama
Bin Laden who headed the group that brought down the World Trade Center
in New York City on September 11, 2001, is proof that a clear and present
danger is on the prowl looking for its next target.”
harald.zielinski@dlh.de.
(Geoffrey Arend)
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