Abu Dhabi: The recent terrorist attacks involving insiders in the aviation sector show salaries, long-term job prospects and motivation also play an important role in maintaining security and the industry has to keep employees happy to prevent them from turning into “internal threat”, an expert said on Tuesday.
The suspected terrorist bombing of Russian Metrojet Flight 9268 that killed all 224 passengers and crew in Egypt on October 31, 2015 was a major example of an insider threat, said Nicoletta M. Mazzoleni, senior policy specialist, Aviation Security Affairs Sector at UAE General Civil Aviation Authority.
Mazzoleni, who was a speaker at the National Security Middle East conference in the capital, spoke to Gulf News on its sidelines on Tuesday.
Media reports said Russian investigators believed that bombs were placed inside the Metrojet Flight during loading by a baggage handler who was loyal to an Egyptian offshoot of Daesh, causing one of the deadliest attack by Daesh.
Regarding similar incidents in the past, a Newsweek report last year cited the arrest of four men in 2007 for conspiring to blow up the fuel tanks and pipeline at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport. One of the suspects was a former cargo worker at JFK.
In 2010, a British Airways staff was arrested in Newcastle, England, for plotting an aircraft bombing; he was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2011.
In 2013, an avionics technician was nabbed in an FBI sting operation after attempting to explode a car bomb at the Wichita, Kansas, airport.
And in 2014, a baggage handler at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport was busted for helping an accomplice smuggle at least 125 guns by loading them on to flights between Atlanta and New York. All of those incidents took place at airports that employ some of the most sophisticated security technology and procedures in the world, the Newsweek report said.
Mazzoleni said an employee carrying an airport badge with access to controlled areas can be a big threat if he or she turns into a “bad guy”. Lack of motivation at work due to low salaries and lack of long-term prospects in the job may also act as possible causes of dissatisfaction among employees [apart from other elements like sympathy towards illegal organisations]. Countermeasures such as proper background check, ongoing vetting system, attracting and retaining skilled people will help avert an “insider threat”, she said.
Mazzoleni said the UAE has a perfect system in place to take care of the employees in the aviation sector, which also strictly implements ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) regulations on safety and security.
Asked whether a series of aviation incidents in recent years raises safety and security concerns about air traffic, she said the aviation sector is still safer than any other mode of transport. “If you take the large number of accidents occurring on roads [and fatalities], the incidents in the aviation sector cannot be compared at all,” Mazzoleni said.
Also, as safety and security is the responsibility of all, passengers, too, have to strictly follow security instructions. The same old instructions such as never leave your baggage unattended and alert authorities about unattended baggage are more important than ever in the present circumstances, she added.
