The predictability of airport security measures are playing into the hands of terrorists, according to the head of security at airport operator BAA.
Ian Hutcheson told The Guardian that there should be a review of how passengers are screened as they go through different airports’ security to make them less readable and more subject to change.
The paper reports that the Hutcheson’s comments dovetail with transport secretary Philip Hammond’s plans to make airport security more flexible in the UK.
Transport Secretary Philip Hammond
Hutcheson told the paper: “There has to be an element of not being sure what security you are being subjected to. Most attacks on aviation are well reconnaissanced and well planned. If you have a consistent security system around the globe it is quite easy to reconnoitre that and predict it."
He is in favour of a technique called “behavioural detection” which has so far been trialled at six UK airports in London and Scotland.
This involves BAA staff receiving training on how to spot unusual behaviour in passengers while they await their flight.
Philip Hammond has been critical of the standard approach that the EU and the UK government currently stipulate all airports must follow and believes experts at each airport should be given the freedom to approach security as they see fit.
by Dinah Hatch
