Vector article on Aviation Security
Dec 26, 2011 19:32:16 GMT 12
flyinkiwi, baronbeeza, and 1 more like this
Post by Peter Lewis on Dec 26, 2011 19:32:16 GMT 12
If you hold an aviation licence, by now you will have received the November/December issue of Vector magazine from CAA. This publication does make interesting and sometimes sobering reading, so I always set aside time to go through it.
This recent issue includes an article relating to the television reporters who tried to impersonate an airline pilot and gain entry to the security areas at Auckland Airport.
There can be no doubt that this was a stupid action by the television people involved, and they deserve any penalties that a court may impose. Presumably they were after a shock horror story about how easy it might be to gain access, and it is good to see that their attempts were spectacularly unsuccessful.
What I do find disturbing is that the Vector article goes on to suggest that every person who does not have a definite employment or passenger role at any airfield in the country is therefore somehow up to no good and should be apprehended. Quote: That person could be watching aircraft movements and trying to plan something.
Excuse me? So any individual at or near any sort of local airstrip, GA field or regional aerodrome is to be suspected unless they can prove otherwise? I find this attitude deeply unsettling, and I am astounded that any authority charged with the promotion of aviation in all its forms should adopt and promote this view.
How did you, as an aviation-minded individual, develop you particular interest? I cannot answer for you, but I hung around various airfields as a youngster, soaking up the atmosphere and acquiring the ability to tell a Friendship from a Fletcher. No-one suggested that I was about to sabotage any aircraft or airfield structure, and generally the attitude of those around the place at the time ranged from complete indifference to a sort of friendly tolerance. Try that today at places like Queenstown or Hamilton and see how far you get. Faced with impenetrable chain-mesh fencing, hovering security guards, numerous signs advising that aviation is dangerous and announcing harsh penalties for entry onto the premises, no budding aviation enthusiast is going to feel welcome or get far.
To my mind, aviation, both as an industry and as a recreational activity, already has a large and growing PR problem. The attitude of the general public ranges from regarding aviation in all its form as an irritating, dangerous and polluting nuisance indulged by wealthy risk-taking playboys to seeing airfields as a necessary but repulsive activity akin to a rubbish tip or a sewage farm. In the early 1930s it was generally held that a town without an airfield was destined to quickly become a municipal backwater. These days any plans to set up a new airfield will instantly cause a storm of hot opposition from all quarters ranging from the Green Party to Federated Farmers.
Yet interest in aviation in all its forms is still out there. Go to an SAA fly-in at a local airstrip or the nearest airshow during the season and you will still see young and old turning up, all keen to look into our world. We need these people to see that aviation is not a black art but as an activity carried out by real people who do not have any superman abilities, who are individuals that have taken the necessary steps to apply time and effort to get where they are today. Perhaps then some of those people may become involved themselves, and hopefully many others will think a little more about that experience before they instantly adopt a hostile attitude to any proposed aviation activity in their area.
To encourage taxi drivers, car park staff, cafe and retail workers to adopt a suspicious and intolerant attitude towards anyone who is not actually climbing aboard a scheduled flight is in my view short sighted and ultimately fatal to the image of aviation. I can go up the road on a Saturday afternoon and see a yacht club in action. Adults and children assembling, launching, racing and recovering all sorts of water craft. No signs warning of danger or possible prosecution, no security patrols, no ‘keep out stranger’ fencing. Hang around long enough and you will find yourself hauling on a rope, getting your feet wet, or helping time a race. Contrast that with someone arriving at an airfield to whet their aviation interest. No wonder aero clubs are struggling. I know of at least two long-standing aero clubs that have closed after their membership faded away, due, I’m told largely to recent difficulties with security access at their fields. They were no longer pleasant social and relaxing places to be. Losing outside involvement and support from their local community, they died. If Mum and the kids cannot picnic on the grass while they watch Dad go flying, you have a problem. The interest (and the money) will go elsewhere.
The current emphasis on security issues may well provide lucrative employment opportunities, remunerative supply contracts and a sense of personal importance to those involved but, to me, this attitude will ultimately be fatal to aviation in New Zealand as we know it. I have been in countries where any aviation activity at all is as far removed from almost the entire population as Grand Prix racing. I would not like to see this situation develop here.
Historically we have had a strong grass-roots sport aviation and GA movement, and adopting a ‘Fortress Aviation’ attitude full of suspicion and fear will in turn engender a similar hostile and intolerant attitude back from the general population and eventually seriously damage aviation at every level.
Peter Lewis
This recent issue includes an article relating to the television reporters who tried to impersonate an airline pilot and gain entry to the security areas at Auckland Airport.
There can be no doubt that this was a stupid action by the television people involved, and they deserve any penalties that a court may impose. Presumably they were after a shock horror story about how easy it might be to gain access, and it is good to see that their attempts were spectacularly unsuccessful.
What I do find disturbing is that the Vector article goes on to suggest that every person who does not have a definite employment or passenger role at any airfield in the country is therefore somehow up to no good and should be apprehended. Quote: That person could be watching aircraft movements and trying to plan something.
Excuse me? So any individual at or near any sort of local airstrip, GA field or regional aerodrome is to be suspected unless they can prove otherwise? I find this attitude deeply unsettling, and I am astounded that any authority charged with the promotion of aviation in all its forms should adopt and promote this view.
How did you, as an aviation-minded individual, develop you particular interest? I cannot answer for you, but I hung around various airfields as a youngster, soaking up the atmosphere and acquiring the ability to tell a Friendship from a Fletcher. No-one suggested that I was about to sabotage any aircraft or airfield structure, and generally the attitude of those around the place at the time ranged from complete indifference to a sort of friendly tolerance. Try that today at places like Queenstown or Hamilton and see how far you get. Faced with impenetrable chain-mesh fencing, hovering security guards, numerous signs advising that aviation is dangerous and announcing harsh penalties for entry onto the premises, no budding aviation enthusiast is going to feel welcome or get far.
To my mind, aviation, both as an industry and as a recreational activity, already has a large and growing PR problem. The attitude of the general public ranges from regarding aviation in all its form as an irritating, dangerous and polluting nuisance indulged by wealthy risk-taking playboys to seeing airfields as a necessary but repulsive activity akin to a rubbish tip or a sewage farm. In the early 1930s it was generally held that a town without an airfield was destined to quickly become a municipal backwater. These days any plans to set up a new airfield will instantly cause a storm of hot opposition from all quarters ranging from the Green Party to Federated Farmers.
Yet interest in aviation in all its forms is still out there. Go to an SAA fly-in at a local airstrip or the nearest airshow during the season and you will still see young and old turning up, all keen to look into our world. We need these people to see that aviation is not a black art but as an activity carried out by real people who do not have any superman abilities, who are individuals that have taken the necessary steps to apply time and effort to get where they are today. Perhaps then some of those people may become involved themselves, and hopefully many others will think a little more about that experience before they instantly adopt a hostile attitude to any proposed aviation activity in their area.
To encourage taxi drivers, car park staff, cafe and retail workers to adopt a suspicious and intolerant attitude towards anyone who is not actually climbing aboard a scheduled flight is in my view short sighted and ultimately fatal to the image of aviation. I can go up the road on a Saturday afternoon and see a yacht club in action. Adults and children assembling, launching, racing and recovering all sorts of water craft. No signs warning of danger or possible prosecution, no security patrols, no ‘keep out stranger’ fencing. Hang around long enough and you will find yourself hauling on a rope, getting your feet wet, or helping time a race. Contrast that with someone arriving at an airfield to whet their aviation interest. No wonder aero clubs are struggling. I know of at least two long-standing aero clubs that have closed after their membership faded away, due, I’m told largely to recent difficulties with security access at their fields. They were no longer pleasant social and relaxing places to be. Losing outside involvement and support from their local community, they died. If Mum and the kids cannot picnic on the grass while they watch Dad go flying, you have a problem. The interest (and the money) will go elsewhere.
The current emphasis on security issues may well provide lucrative employment opportunities, remunerative supply contracts and a sense of personal importance to those involved but, to me, this attitude will ultimately be fatal to aviation in New Zealand as we know it. I have been in countries where any aviation activity at all is as far removed from almost the entire population as Grand Prix racing. I would not like to see this situation develop here.
Historically we have had a strong grass-roots sport aviation and GA movement, and adopting a ‘Fortress Aviation’ attitude full of suspicion and fear will in turn engender a similar hostile and intolerant attitude back from the general population and eventually seriously damage aviation at every level.
Peter Lewis
