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)