"ICAO meet to discuss new aviation measures"

Sunday, February 17, 2002

ICAO meet to discuss new aviation measures
India - NDTV (New Delhi)


New Delhi - New terrorist methods like using aircraft as missiles and
attacks on airports will be discussed threadbare at the governmental
level when the Ministerial Conference of International Civil Aviation
Organisation (ICAO) begins in Montreal next week.

The meeting assumes significance in the wake of the September 11 terror
strikes on WTC Towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, the
hijack of Indian Airlines flight to Kandahar and the attack on Colombo
Airport, which have given "a new dimension" to the threats to civil
aviation security globally.

A two-member Indian team, comprising Veeranna Aivalli, chief of the
Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), and Anurag Goel, Joint
Secretary in Civil Aviation Ministry, will be attending the two-day
conference beginning February 19.

The meeting is also likely to consider creation of a permanent
international body to carry out aviation security audits in airports
across the globe. "Such a job is already being done in India by the
BCAS, which has been in existence for 24 years now," Aivalli said.

Aivalli, who also heads a 15-member ICAO Special Group comprising
experts from eight countries and a couple of international aviation
bodies, said the Montreal Conference would discuss threadbare the new
threat perceptions in view of these incidents.

These also include "unruly behaviour of passengers in mid-air" and use
of aircraft as a missile and how we can check these threats, he said,
adding "now you don't require any weapon to hijack a plane."


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