Air Security International Warns Against Complacency
There is a great danger, believes Air Security International (ASI),
that corporate flight operators are not taking a full account
of the new array of security threats that now confront them. ASI
worries that too many operators are only paying lip service to
meaningful security measures in the post 9/11 world, and thus
exposing themselves to disaster. ASI has identified this complacency
as perhaps the biggest threat facing the business aviation sector.
"We find that there are still folks out there in general
aviation that simply don't care," says Charlie LuBlanc, vp
of operations for ASI. "There are many people who see September
11 as an aberration, and that everything is back to normal. They
are the ones who threaten corporate aviation to its core because
they are the ones who become very easy targets for potential acts
of terrorism."
ASI cites just a few key issues for operators to get to grips
with: always extend your crisis management plans to the flight
department; undertake a proper security assessment of the FBOs
and facilities that you fly in and out of; protect your flight
crew, in their hotels and on the way to the airport; keep your
itineraries confidential.
The real risk to the business aviation community would not simply
be the tragedy of a single terrorist outrage, but the inevitable
legal, financial and regulatory clamp-down that would follow such
an event which could effectively wipe out the industry as we know
it, perhaps forever.
