Lackadaisical authorities continue to keep Mumbai airport in danger zone

The Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) was put under on high alert on Monday following a call received at the airport's control room, claiming that the airport terminals and Taj hotel would be attacked.

Earlier this month, two Vasai residents had entered the high-security Terminal 2 of CSIA using fake Vistara flight tickets. They were caught by security officials while exiting the departure gate without catching a plane. Even as the incident had sent security agencies into a tizzy, owing to the seriousness of the breach, further investigations had revealed that duo had done so in order to see off a relative.

Experts say the two could have been prevented from entering the terminal with a bit of more human interaction by security officials posted inside and outside the airport.

Dozens of major and minor instances of security breaches have been reported across airports in India. Minister of civil aviation (state) Mahesh Sharma had last month accepted that such instances happen, while saying "only" 15 cases of security breach have been reported since 2012 by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), the aviation safety regulator.

Sharma had said that of the total lapses, 10 were reported in 2012 itself from various domestic airports, with the most — five — from CSIA. The other airports that had reported such cases were Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Guwahati, Amritsar and Hyderabad.

The seriousness of the situation can be gauged from the fact that this February a report by home ministry revealed that Mumbai and Juhu airports are among those vulnerable to terror attacks due to lack of alertness among intelligence agencies, inadequate equipment for security forces, and poor contract management of security projects, among other reasons.

Aviation security experts are of the opinion that such breaches could have been controlled had the Airports Authority of India (AAI), which manages most of the civil aviation airports in the country, not been sitting on its own recommendation for the past couple of years — to replicate the security system at world's most vulnerable (terror strikes-wise) airports in Israel. Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv has not seen any serious security breach in the past 30 years.

In May 2013, a delegation led by KN Srivastava, secretary, ministry of civil aviation, visited Israel to study the aviation security procedures adopted there. A recommendation was made by the delegation on its return, which stated, "The AAI may strengthen its own security division at each airport, including the joint ventures (privately-operated airports), to deal with security-related duties and, thus, the restructuring of directorate of security may be done. The security component created may deal with issues of AEPs, AOCC duties, screening of hold baggage, screening of cargo, surveillance at the terminal buildings, etc. A separate study may be made in this regard by the ministry of civil aviation."

A senior AAI official, aware of the 2013 visit and the recommendation, said, "After spending valuable public money on 'education trips', the recommendation remains just on paper. Nothing has moved forward, with airports still as vulnerable to terror attacks as ever."

While the ministry of civil aviation was not forthcoming on the issue, a Right to Information application filed with AAI by dna did not illicit any response. Further, a mail sent to AAI spokesperson GS Bawa remained unanswered.

What can airports in India learn from the way Ben Gurion manages aviation security?
Tel Aviv Ben Gurion International Airport, or Ben Gurion Airport, is the largest and busiest international airport in Israel. Security is said to be top-notch as it is topmost on the terror target list due to political and military tensions Israel has with its neighbours over the Palestine conflict since more than half a century. In spite of that there has been no major security threat or any accident in more than 30 years at the airport nor in any airline servicing from Israel.

According to the aviation experts dna spoke to, Israel airports not only have the latest equipment, but also lay emphasis on human interaction techniques. As a result, the country has managed to secure its airports from passenger entry points to perimeter access roads and airspace using technological developments, and also developed an effective method of security in relation to human factors, including constantly observing passenger behaviour pattern and interviewing/questioning them in order to read their minds.

This can be identified with the point Raphael Ron, who served as director of security at Ben Gurion for five years, makes on the portal www.securitysolutions.com. "Two assumptions have anchored security at Ben Gurion since 1972, when 24 people died in an attack on the airport by Japanese Red Army militants. We assumed that before an attack could take place, there had to be a person with the intention of carrying out an attack and there had to be a weapon," he says.

"... we learnt that a weapon is not necessary. What remains is the human factor. Without a person who intends to do harm, an attack will not take place."

In comparison, India is far from having world-class security at airports, as porous boundary walls and habitations around the airport vicinity make it a sitting duck for terrorists.

According to Sharma, the safety measures at airports across India are time-bound deployment of CISF personnel, deployment of Quick Reaction Teams, and regular monitoring of security arrangements through inspections and dummy checks.