19. Security problems at airports

The paper considers the effects and needs of security to combat aviation terrorism. The nature of the threat either of sabotage or hijacking is analysed and a brief history of moves to define and combat such threrts is given. The UK position is set out in detail. The separate roles of airport security staff and police are outlined, and practical measures for achieving security are described.

The need for future airports to be planned with security in mind from the outset, and the need for security awareness throughout the industry are stressed.

In 1937 newspaper headlines in England were devoted, for some weeks, to a case of robbery with violence which was called the 'Mayfair Men Case1. Four men had arranged for a jewellerfs representative to call at the Hyde Park Hotel with a case containing some £25,000 worth of jewellery; they had hit him on the head with a small stool and almost - but not quite - killed him; had decamped with the jewellery- and were caught at Oxford Airport with the loot whilst trying to hire an aircraft to the continent. For this they were given prison sentences ranging from 5-15 years (with penal servitude) and floggings ranging from 6 to 12 strokes with the cat-o-nine-tails. The headlines were one inch high and they occupied the newspapers weeks when the offence was committed and for further weeks during the trial. It was a wonder for far more than nine days.