Day after bomb hoax, airlines clueless about next step

A day after a crude bomb was found aboard a Kingfisher airliner, security agencies and aviation authorities were still scratching their heads on how to move forward on closing gaps in the security systems at the airports.

Nasim Zaidi, director general of civil aviation, was non-committal on the issue, saying it did not fall under his jurisdiction when asked whether the airline regulatory authority would look at altering the current security norms in the wake of Sunday’s incident. “Actually, this issue falls under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS). They are looking into the incident and will come out with fresh directives based on their inquiry,” he said.

Till late evening, the airlines had not received any circular from the BCAS. Saroj Dutta, executive director of Jet Airways, said his airline was waiting for recommendations on new security measures from the BCAS. “We follow processes set by the BCAS. But to my knowledge nothing (circular) has come to us yet,” he said.

At the regional level, though, the authorities were moving much faster. In a bid to plug the security holes at the airports in the southern region, the regional directorate of civil aviation commission, on Monday, issued fresh guidelines to airlines involving more stringent checks of their airport and cabin staff.
The circular by the regional aviation authority was shot off to the airport directors of Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram, and the chief operating officer of the Bengaluru International Airport Ltd. The circular was also forwarded to  airline operators.

The new norms put emphasis on intensifying manual checks of handbags, strict surveillance of security staff and thorough checks of vehicles and their occupants at the airports.