Air Safety !

Death in any form is something we wish to avoid, but the idea of dieing in an air accident seems to enthral people in a special horror.  It also seems to fascinate terrorists.  The destruction of a plane and its passengers ensures maximum publicity and these days propaganda is high on most terrorist agendas.

It seems a simple objective.  Hundred of people flashing through the sky at high speed encased in a thin aluminium tube that is vulnerable to mischief.   We have seen an airliner shot out of the sky by a missile fired from a war site in  Ukraine and a number of airliners have been destroyed by bombs smuggled aboard their cargo holds but now the risk has moved to suicide bombers who may sacrifice their own lives to destroy a plane in flight.

The definition of a " bomb " has become more sophisticated.  One such attempt was chemicals saturated in the wearers underpants and others have attempted to mix innocuous carry-ons in flight to create an explosive.  There is a danger that electronic devices may mask such a danger and the list of prohibited items grows steadily.   We are advised to be at the airport two hours prior to a local flight - and three hours if international travel is involved.  The romance of air travel is being eroded.

It seems our security people foiled a terrorist plot to smuggler an explosive device onto a plane at Sydney airport and destroy it in flight.  The arrest pool is widening and an actual bomb had been constructed.  We have yet to learn just how they intended to smuggle it onto a plane but it is clear that followers of Islamic State living in Australia intended to wage war on their fellow citizens.

It seems that our main security thrust is concentrated on both cargo and passengers carried by aircraft. Luggage searches and personal pat downs are the first line of defence at airports and it seems that the spooks are efficiently penetrating terrorist cells to gain early warning. Unfortunately, there is another danger that is impossible to effectively counter.

Aircraft taking off from Sydney mostly head out over Botany Bay but many incoming make a low approach over the inner suburbs.   It is common to see giant airliners with their undercarriage lowered, flaps positioned for low speed gliding a few hundred feet above the roofs of homes before they touch down on the runway at Mascot.

They are vulnerable to a terrorist with something as simple as a rocker propelled grenade launcher, standing on the patio of a unit block or in the backyard of a home and firing at an almost unmissable target. Rocket propelled grenade launchers are commonly used by terrorists in the Middle East and we know that arms smuggling into Australia is rife.

Unfortunately, when someone is prepared to sacrifice their life for a cause a whole lot of new opportunities for success arise.  So far, luck has been in our favour !