Bill would require airlines to buy antimissile equipment
GAMA numbers are down. Airspace is becoming more and more
restrictive. Airlines continue to struggle through one of the worst
slumps in industry history. What could be worse?
Check this out.
The threat of portable missile attacks on passenger planes will
top the agenda when international aviation security experts meet in
Montreal next month. That word from Assad Kotaite, president of the
International Civil Aviation Organization Council.
How Credible A Threat?
Terrorists fired two such missiles at an Israeli
Boeing 757 in Kenya in November, narrowly missing the aircraft as
it took off from Mombassa airport en route to Tel Aviv. There were
no injuries in the attack, timed to coincide with a car bombing at
a Kenyan resort popular with Israeli tourists.
The incident "raised concerns worldwide in the civil aviation
community that this type of terrorist attack may spread to other
regions and target carriers from other nations," Kotaite said.
SFM Proliferation
An estimated 27 guerrilla and terrorist groups worldwide have
Soviet SA-series shoulder-fired missile launchers, which now
outnumber the U.S.-made Stinger missiles that spread through
Afghanistan in the 1990s, according to Jane's Intelligence
Review.
The weapons can last up to 22 years and are nearly impossible to
track until they are used because they are purchased on the black
market, the defense journal said.
Al-Qaeda reportedly has a number of the missile launchers.
Carty: Greater Threat Overseas
Airline executives are worried but perceive the threat to be
higher overseas than in the United States, said Don Carty (right),
chairman and chief executive of AMR Corp., the parent of American
Airlines.
"Everything is a concern to us," Carty said during
a recent interview. "I think probably we're less concerned
domestically than we might be with some international destinations
where we're less sure of police and security and so on."
In London, six people have been arrested near Heathrow Airport.
While British anti-terror police aren't saying much, the arrests
come after a reported threat to use a shoulder-mounted missile in
the downing of a commercial jetliner. Four of those arrested were
directly under the Heathrow glide-slope.
Carty estimated the cost of outfitting jetliners with some kind
of defense mechanism is $3 million to $4 million per airplane.
Two years ago, that might have sounded like an extreme step. But
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA)and Charles Schumer (D-NY) introduced a
bill last week requiring commercial aircraft to be equipped with
such systems. The cost was estimated at $10 billion. At least
initially, the bill requires airlines to foot the cost.
This kind of an expense is the last thing airlines need right
now, said Susan Donofrio, senior U.S. airline analyst at Deutsche
Bank Securities.
"The airlines cannot afford another financial burden from
Washington at this time," she wrote. "We would expect some
push-back from the aviation industry unless there are guarantees
that the aviation industry will not shoulder this financially."