Air tight call
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• Tighter security for hauliers delivering air cargo to airports has been recommended by the MPs of the All Party Transport Committee. In a report published last week they expressed grave concern about security lapses since the Lockerbie bombing earlier this year, suggesting that more mandatory checking is necessary and that any drivers going airside must be body-searched — but the MPs also said that "every person going airside, including customs and immigration officers and the police — except in response to an emergency — should be searched".
The report also deals with air cargo, warning that airlines do not know full details of cargo agents unless they are regular customers.
"The rationale behind the treatment of cargo has been that one cannot predict which aircraft cargo will travel on and therefore cannot target a specific flight. But we regard this as inadequate in an age when a terrorist group may wish to make indiscriminate attacks on aircraft", the MPs said. "Cargo remains a weak link and we recommend that action be taken through the International Civil Aviation Organisation to develop a code of practice whereby all cargo has to originate from registered shippers".