New Airport Security technology breakthroughs combatting increasingly complex threat environment

Commercial aviation plays a central role in our daily lives and is an essential part of the national economy. More than 100,000 flights take off and land every day across the world. More than billion passengers go by air every year as do over  20 million  tonnes of freight. It will occupy an even more important place in the future as tourism continues to grow, world production moves to higher value added output and economic activities become widely integrated worldwide.

 

Commercial aviation has  also been an alluring target for terrorists for decades now. On the morning of 22 March 2016, three coordinated suicide bombings occurred in Belgium: two at Brussels Airport in Zaventem, and one at Maalbeek metro station in central Brussels killing at least 30 people and wounding 230 others. The perpetrators belonged to a terrorist cell which had been involved in the November 2015 Paris attacks.  Local mayor Francis Vermeiren confirmed the ISIS suspects checked in their explosives-packed suitcases just seconds before the atrocities. He said: ‘They came in a taxi with their suitcases, their bombs were in their bags. ‘They put their suitcases on trolleys, the first two bombs exploded. The third also put his on a trolley but he must have panicked, it didn’t explode.’

 

In Dec 2020, At least 22 people have been killed and more than 50 wounded in an attack at the airport in the southern Yemeni city of Aden, officials say. There was at least one explosion shortly after a plane carrying the war-torn country’s newly formed government arrived from neighbouring Saudi Arabia. Aid workers and officials were among the casualties. But the prime minister said he and his cabinet were “fine”. The information minister accused Houthi rebels of a “cowardly terrorist act”.

 

Terrorists have been using innovative new technologies and tactics like smuggling modular explosive devices onto planes, camouflaging explosives in everyday items and hiding them inside suicide operatives’ bodies, and carrying 9/11-style attacks. In 2006, there was a major plot to blow up several trans-Atlantic flights using explosives concealed in drinks bottles. Further attempts included a bomb hidden in a terrorist’s underwear in 2009, and the printer cartridge bomb in 2010. Even airport terminals and associated facilities such as car parks have come under terrorist attacks. As threat  is evolving continuously the security measures also must adapt continuously to reduce the risks.
“Passenger numbers are expected to double in 20 years, putting airport security facilities under immense pressure,” said Ken Wood, Sales and Marketing Director of Sequestim Ltd, a joint venture between Cardiff University and QMC Instruments Ltd.

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