GA security
 

Anybody been through Dubbo recently? The security measures taken seem to be not consistant. A visiting pilot can't get out of the GA parking yet there is no metal detection for airline passengers so pax can board with a loaded revolver or knife or any weapon of their choice. The GA exit gate has no code, no number to ring or any way to exit the gate. To enter the GA section though the same gate there is a number to ring on the outside to get the gate code for access. If you have a heavy middle eastern accent will they still give you the code? How can somebody on the end of a phone sort visiting pilots from visiting terrorists? How can millions of dollars of fences and security compete with a $2 pair of side cutters?

I feel your pain. After recently visiting regional ports, it is quite annoying to find that you dont have access to the main terminal via the ramp area but have to use a side gate to get into the terminal, well cant call it a terminal, its just a small crappy building in most cases. Unless you are with a regional airline, then you can walk straight in.
Security in the regional ports needs to be re-addressed.

Yup absolutely. Lets have:
Manned security gates 24/7 with someone to verify your ASIC.
Electronic ACCESS chips embedded into your ASIC which will open the gate for you. No need to hide your middle eastern accent then.
Screening for all departing aircraft, regardless of point of departure, MTOW, classification of service.
SuperCecil, The OTS loves people like you because it validates their endless list of self fulfilling prophecies.

All those measures you think are so necessary can easily be implemented. No shortage of companies queuing up to sell screening equipment and for G4 or MSS to provide the people to carry out the associated manual tasks. Even the local fencing contractors would love the job of putting up a 2.4m chain mesh fence with angled barbed wire strands.

But here's the rub, all this will come at a very significant cost indeed. Do you really want Dubbo to be like YSSY or YMML? You should be thankful that aviation security is based on a localised risk context. Dubbo, if it has RPT aircraft greater than 20,000KG MTOW will be subject to full passenger screening WEF 2012. Believe me, GA pilots and pax that get caught up in that little mess are going to be spewing. Especially if they are also forced to pay for the pleasure.

If you walk up to the gate airside at Dubbo, you will miss the gate code.
Step back a pace and you will see the gate code printed on a post, about 1.5 mts inside the gate.

....in Dubbo??????????????

I'd be more worried about the residents of Vegimite Valley!

Here, you ring the number and someone turns up with the code after checking your ASIC for the very reasons you list. Obviously other places don't do that and maybe they should.
Most types of wire fence can be cut with regular tools from a hardware store. Even the major airports have this problem. New Delhi airport has a full sized prison style wall built around it with guard posts and 3500 security staff yet they still get breaches.
DIAL fails to secure airport perimeter, yet again - Hindustan Times

If you start requiring walls or tamper proof fencing for even the major Australian airports at 20km+ a perimeter, someone's going to have to pay and it sure won't be the government or the airports.

+2 what YPJT said.

Dubbo is not the only place. I do enjoy the irony that at one airfield I visit regularly the airline staff can't (won't?) check your ASIC and let you through the gate. So you go to the GA gate, ring for the code (no ASIC check) and then you walk back across the RPT line to your aircraft.

And at YPJT.....the airstrip that is, you rock up to the gate, ring the number, few seconds later via sms the gate is unlocked :D

The towell heads will never think of that :hmm:

I went to YPJT the other day and got in without any security. Apart from the fact I worked there years ago. Maybe these idiots need to profile rather than make rules hehe!! All good I got in with no drama! :)

I know I go on from time to time about the perils of being caught without your asic card as opposed to committing an aviation related crime or blatant disregard for safety (which IMOH is far more serious then this locked gate stuff) but really, has anybody ever heard of anybody getting fined or in any more serious trouble for breaching one of these "Security controlled areas" then being told "Hey, you can't go in there" or "Stop or I'll shoot, hang on, forget that last one, I don't have a gun." or how about this one?, "You'd be arrested for that except I don't have any powers of arrest and actually I don't think I'm allowed to arrest anyone in any case." Or (as was said to me once up at Merimbula), "I'd call the Police except they're out of town at the moment."

Stiky
:ugh:

I can never remember the Cooktown gate code, Dr - so I use the same method!

That's not what I am suggesting, it's proven that the tens of millions already spent have been totally wasted, the only result has been to inconvience pilots who already have ASIO files and are watched anyway. Those who are determined to circumvent the failed security measures will. Why impose all this on law abiding pilots when you can still board an airliner at a regional airfield with concealed weapons?
As for perimeter fencing, at most regional airfields it doesn't even keep the roos out. With one well known airfield having the "Terrorist proof" fence in a trench because it was too close to the runway.

Stikybeke
I did hear of a guy who got fined for not wearing his ASIC in a clear view, he put his high vis vest on and it covered it. :ugh::ugh::ugh::ugh:

Because it looks good on the media release and gives the false impression that the Minister is being pro-active. That's what government is all about :yuk:. Until you work for them you have no idea how many millions of tax dollars are wasted on this sort of media driven crap (and not just in aviation).

Announcing that airports are basically unsecurable (which they are) would not look good on the media release and be seized on by ACA etc. It would make the punters think the Minister was being lazy. The fact that it's the truth is irrelevant. Interestingly, I noticed in the Hindustan Times that the Indian government is a lot more honest about the realities of airport security.

Airport fences aren't breached very often because very few people want to breach them. No other reason.

Do yoo get the "High viz vest strut" when yoo ponce around in yours Robert?:8

In the Good Ol' Days, even on the major airport ramps you just had to produce it on demand. The new visibility rule has resulted in an awful lot of ASICs on lanyards taking around-the world-trips in aircraft holds. :ugh: Personally I don't think any of the post 9/11 'initiatives' have resulted in safer aviation, with the possible exception of banning box cutters on screened aircraft.

OK, so there are some gaps in the processes that are slowly but surely being closed. The next step is the 20k MTOW trigger for screening. So what next Super Cecil, will you be saying that all GA aircraft are potentially terrorist weapons? Perhaps they are and we should screen everyone and everything before it leaves the ground.
Be careful of what you wish for.
For the record though, I do not in any way support the notion that properly security cleared pilots should be subject to the same screening measures as every Tom, Dick and Hussein boarding and aircraft.

SuperCecil,
your wish is granted -

Security upgrades to hit passengers' costs By Steve Creedy From: The Australian October 27, 2010

AIRLINES and their passengers have been warned to brace for a "potentially massive surge" in security costs at international airports as a result of a series of ASIO reports on airport vulnerabilities.

Airport umbrella group the Board of Airline Representatives of Australia says it knows of one airline that is already planning to spend $10 million on security upgrades and is looking at a final project worth up to $60m.

It warns airlines potentially face paying for upgrades around the country worth "many tens of millions of dollars", costs that will be passed on to consumers, without being told the rationale behind them.

BARA executive director Warren Bennett said ASIO began looking at airport security after the review several years ago by British expert John Wheeler and produced a series of "vulnerability reports", which had been passed on to airport operators.

He said operators were under pressure from the Office of Transport Security to respond.

He said BARA understood the reports covered issues such as perimeter access, CCTV coverage and internal access.

But he said it did not know what else was coming that might add up to $45m to $60m in one airport and there had been no indication from other airports as to their response.


Rest assured, GA will in part be snared up in this and share the burden of cost.

Gaps? Gaping wide chasm's maybe. Yes they think that GA machinery could be used, but so can anything from a semi trailer fuel tanker down to any car could carry enough to do major damage in any major city. Are the same measures taken with those? Apart from those with DG and truck licence's having ASIO files I doubt anything.

The point I'm trying make make that you ignore is anything done has not made any difference, nor will it. It is tokenism. Australians are getting more and more gullible if they believe this will make any difference. It will be even worse when the next generation of "Pete's baby bonus" critters get older, he single handedly has lowered Australian IQ by 30 points in one stupid move.