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By Daniel Baxter |
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September 15, 2010
- Early this month a passenger told check-in staff at Qantas Airlines
that there was a bomb in his bag. Rather than isolating the bag and
clearing the area to ensure safety of all passengers, a manager ordered
that the bag be X-rayed.
Qantas Airlines
instructed a baggage handler to X-ray the bag. However, the baggage
handler was not informed at the time, that the bag was subject of a bomb
threat.
It wasn?t until
after the bag was check did the ground handler learned of the threat.
The baggage handler was outraged that he was not told and stated the bag
should have been isolated, passengers cleared of the area and the police
should have been called in. |
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Just this week
another passenger who had checked in for an Air China flight with an
overweight bag was asked to take out some of his belongings in the bag.
The customers responded by stating he was unable because he had a bomb
in it.
Transport Workers
Union national secretary, Tony Sheldon said there were inadequate
systems in place to handle the threat, and members found it frightening
the police were not even called in to investigate. ?What do we have to do get our employers, industry leaders and government put proper procedures in place to protect our safety? We shouldn?t actually have to see a bomb go off before there is action. ?Once again we are using 18th century techniques like putting a canary down the mineshaft to test the air ? except in this case the testing agent is a person with a family.
?There needs to be
a full audit of all procedures across the airport and industry by an
independent agency. We want to see refresher training for frontline
aviation industry workers and an inquiry into repeated failures of
security in the aviation industry. |
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