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Talk To Geoffrey
RE:
The Bomb Printer Cartridge
Dear Geoffrey,
I have worked in the air transport industry for
25 years and assumed that nothing would surprise me much.
I was wrong.
First of all, I really start to wonder what the
biggest threat to commercial aviation is: Al Quaeda fanatics who seemingly
think that bombing innocent people out of the sky will gain them a personal
slice of heaven, or politicians who jump forward with crude statements
after each incident, obviously without bothering about the facts.
A German provincial minister for interior demands
legal authorization to shoot down cargo airliners which may pose a terrorist
threat, others demand 100 percent cargo screening by the Federal police
instead of GHA and Airline staff, or suggest that cargo transport aboard
passenger aircraft is to be abandoned entirely.
Being politicians, they were obviously quick in drafting an agenda to
be decided in a meeting held by the European ministers for interior this
coming Monday.
So what's next?
Obviously, the parcels originating in Yemen were
scanned twice, both in Yemen and when transiting in DXB. The German Federal
police (BKA) obtained the scan images for both parcels and actually confirmed
that even for a trained x-ray operator, the bombs were not visible.
Please get me right here – I am taking
this threat as seriously as anyone should do, but regrettably, it is again
the often-bashed U.S. administration that shows a balanced approach and
restrains itself from jumping to hasty conclusions. TSA chief John Pistole
has said the right thing at the right place - the air cargo business and
governments must react, but keep in mind the importance of world trade.
IATA also proposes the right thing when demanding a multilaterally unified
approach, preferably on ICAO level, by incorporating specific guidance
into ICAO Appendix 17.
The Letter
to the Editor you published on November 3rd did not help.
Because the logic of the whole shipment wasn't
obvious for the contributor, it was felt that "someone" should
have noticed it. That's how some politicians seemingly think as well.
Had the contributor of said letter read the publications
about these incidents, it would have been hard to overlook that the printer
in question came with books, souvenirs and other personal items. Since
the identity of a Yemeni student had been abused, I cannot see anything
obvious here; it was a shipment of personal effects (which, by the way,
always has to undergo a security check and is deemed "Insecure"
cargo), which was presumably also the reason why it was scanned both in
SAH and DXB.
What is to be done about well-concealed IED's—like
the ones in question obviously were—must be decided by people who
are more familiar with the technical options.
However, if someone really wants to improve security
then I believe it to be useful to pay security screeners salaries above
the minimum.
As we all know, this is often one of the worst
paid jobs of all.
And instead of wasting money on unilateral measures,
which, in the end, will not help, but prove another burden to shippers
and air passengers, perhaps money should be allocated to training standardization
and development of internationally binding standards.
Another thing the EU can learn from the U.S.
is the system of Federal Grants. Shippers must have an incentive for providing
proper security training to their staff and keeping the Supply Chain secure.
Cutting off Yemen and other countries from the
air cargo chain will likely not result in the Chamber of Commerce storming
one's doors, as the contributor put it, but it would further isolate these
countries and therefore support the isolationist propaganda of Al Quaeda
and the like. Freedom of travel, goods, people, information and merchandise
is the gravest threat to dictatorial and extremist beliefs.
Jens
Jens-Thomas Rueckert
Manager Training & Projects
LOGAR Günther Hasel e.K.
Gefahrgutberatung/Gefahrgutausbildung
IATA accredited Dangerous Goods School
Baden Airpark / Airport Boulevard B 210
D-77836 Rheinmünster / Germany
T.Rueckert@logar.de
http://www.logar.de
Dear Jens,
Thanks for writing. Politicians generally
overreact because they believe the public expects them to have an immediate
solution to everything, so they tend to shoot from the hip more often
than not. Indeed, keeping the flow of goods is critical to the economy
and shooting down cargo planes cannot be a serious proposition. A balanced
reaction at this point and letting the security specialists handle it
with less fanfare stands to accomplish more in the long run. Dealing with
terrorism efficiently can only succeed when as many countries as possible
cooperate to defeat it. (ACN FT)
Dear Geoffrey,
Thanks for following
up on the overall irrational response of governments worldwide to the
recent terrorist attempts.
IRONY ON
To me, it seems
that all those fast-speak-know-it-all government guys have missed one
very simple solution to this kind of terrorist anti-mankind action: just
ban all air cargo!
But from the day
before yesterday, please!
IRONY OFF
Another subject
that is annoying me again and again:
Some writers in
the aviation journalism environment keep writing "belly-hold"
when they are talking about what is, locationwise, the "lower deck"
area of an aircraft.
Remember: we have
a lower deck, we have a main deck, and (on some passenger aircraft—B747
and A380, but also on the AN-124 and the AN225—we have an upper
deck.
But what some
writers name "belly-hold" (as Heiner did today, again) is nothing
else but the "belly" or the "hold,” but not the "belly-hold.”
"Belly-hold"
is a useless doubling of a meaning. It's the same when a German journalist
writes (and many do!) "Duesenjet" when they mean a "Jet.”
A "Duese"
is nothing but a jet engine. Instead of using "Duesenjet,”
the word "Duesenflugzeug" is the only correct translation.
Maybe you and
your writers can refrain from using "belly-hold" in the future.
Thanks, and keep
up your excellent work!
Best Regards,
Name Witheld
Sidenote from the Editor: The term “belly-hold” must therefore
be a Pleonasm (or tautology), which is the opposite of an Oxymoron. In
other words, a redundancy in terms, like “tiny shrimp,” whereas
the oxymoronic term would be “jumbo shrimp.”
Re: On
35 Years, With Thanks (Publishing Air Cargo News FlyingTypers)
Hi Geoffrey,
May I say, your great self & Madam Sabiha
deserve heartiest congrats from the air freight industry at large, specially
Emirates Pakistan.
When I was country Manager SkyCargo Pakistan
(I retired recently), especially for your kind words, you gave me the
Title of Mr. Air Cargo Pakistan, published in one of your FlyingTypers
a few years ago, followed by an interview arranged thru Emirates SkyCargo
HDQ Dubai with both of your goodselves at the residence of Sabiha’s
relatives in DHA Society Karachi !
Congratulations to both of you & all
colleagues in FlyingTypers!
Long Lives!
God Bless!
Cheers!
Best Regards,
F.D. Malik
Director Aviation
International Cargo Services (Pvt) Ltd.
fd.malik@ics-cargo.com
Dear Geoffrey,
Many, many more !!
Best wishes,
Your friends from Pan Am
Dear Geoffrey,
Mazel Tov on this monumental occasion...
(…and they said it wouldn't last!)
Dennis Klainberg
Hi Geoffrey,
I just walked through the first 60 pages
to note what I had to read carefully.
I think all of it.
A wonderful piece of work and one I shall
keep.
Thank you for all of your great work.
My best wishes,
Garner
W. Garner McNett, Jr.
President
Cargo Data Management Corp.
www.cargodata.com
Geoffrey,
Well, congratulations on 35 years.
I am sure you wonder where that 35 years
went.
With 140 publications a year, you (and the
rest of the family) must be worn out.
Rob Hendricks
|
The
head of each of the participating organizations has been quoted in the
press release and while it is expected that it would be mostly motherhood
and apple pie, as usual, Giovanni Bisignani—and not Des Vertannes,
Global Head of Cargo at IATA, who was there and signed the letter of
intent—takes the cake!
