(MENAFN- Bangladesh Monitor) Dhaka : Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA), the gateway to Bangladesh by air, will continue to suffer from security threat, until the construction of Third Terminal building.
Capt Ishtiaque Hossain, Executive Vice President of International Federation of Airline Pilot's Association (IFALPA) Asia Pacific, said this while talking to The Bangladesh Monitor on the sidelines of the IFALPA Asia Pacific Regional Meeting held in Bangladesh on November 4-7 at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel.
He said that the existing terminal buildings of HSIA have no separate arrival and departure gates. Mix up of arrival and departure passengers is posing major security risk.
And this is one of the problems for operating direct flights between the US and Bangladesh. The need is to have separate points for arrival and departure.
Capt Ishtiaque said that the 55-year old airport needs modernisation to address the current security issues and ensure more comfortable passenger experience.
The new Third Terminal is being established to overcome the current short comings of the existing airport, he said and hoped that like all advanced airports around the globe, it will have separate gates for arriving and departing passengers.
IFALPA Regional meet
IFALPA had its four-day long Asia Pacific Regional Meeting in Bangladesh, hosted by BAPA. The meeting which took place for the fourth time in the country was inaugurated by Md Mahbub Ali, State Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism.
Speaking on the occasion, the State Minister informed, "The government is taking many initiatives to develop the aviation industry of the country." That includes establishing the Third Terminal at HSIA and infrastructure development of other airports.
He also urged the aviation stakeholders to ensure safety of flights in order to reduce aviation accidents.
One of the purposes of the regional meeting was to mark the issues Asian countries are facing in aviation security and safety and come up with combined attempts to overcome those.
Secondly, IFALPA tried to focus the shortcomings of the airports as well as the airways of the countries in the region.
They have a list called IFALPA Annex 29. "Whenever we come across a problem, we notify IFALPA SEC Committee about it. They note and list it in the Annex 29. And then at the meeting, we discuss the issues piled up individually," said Hossain.
Moreover, the regional meeting was aimed at strengthening cooperation between the aviation bodies in the region.
The meeting was attended by Capt Jack Netskar, President of IFALPA. "IFALPA is the only global institute of pilots which responsibly carries on tackling aviation challenges. This explains how much importance such meetings hold, to discuss aviation issues of the region and address them later at the following conference of ICAO with recommended solutions."
About 55 representatives from 19 countries including Bangladesh, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singa-pore, Thailand, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Hong Kong, China, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Fiji and Papua New Guinea attended the Asia Pacific Regional Meeting.
Apart from the foreign delegates, officials of CAAB, Biman and private airlines of the country also participated in the meeting since safety is a common issue for all. The regional meeting was much bigger in scale, compared to the closed-door security committee meeting held recently.
The first day of the four-day long IFALPA Asia Pacific Regional Meeting was fully dedicated for international safety seminar featuring presentations from officials of CAAB, AAIG-BD, Biman, IFATCA, IFALPA, COMAC and pilots from various countries.
The meeting was chaired by Capt Ishtiaque Hossain ,who joined Biman in 1993. He became the Regional Vice President for Asia West of IFALPA in 2010. He was elected for the same post again in 2012, 2014 and 2016. Finally, Hossain became the first Bangladeshi to be elected as the Executive Vice President for the entire Asia Pacific of IFALPA in 2017.
Security Meeting
IFALPA also had its first ever Security Committee Meeting in Bangladesh recently, hosted by Bangladesh Airline Pilots' Association. It focused on the following agendas: laser attack, flights into/over conflict zones, drone operation near airport and many others.
Globally, laser attack is now less usual. However, it has become pervasive in our country for its easy availability. Also, people take it as a fun activity. However, what they don't realise is that it can be extremely dangerous for the pilots, making one blind temporarily once hit in the eye during the crucial moment of takeoff or landing.
"Since we are not experts in this subject, we involved our local security forces in the meeting. Through air traffic control, we should notify them as soon as we notice such an incident, suggested the police," mentioned Hossain.
Another aviation security issue for our country presently is the use of drones disrupting or endangering airport operations. Drones are no longer used for intelligence or security purpose only. Now, it is commonly used for shooting purposes as well.
However, it can lead to deadly results, even a crash, if a drone comes into the pathway of an aircraft. Hence in London, an aircraft is immediately alerted through air traffic control if a drone is seen anywhere around 25 miles of it.
Drone operation is even banned in a 25-mile radius of airports in many countries. For instance, in Thailand, people have to register first to use drones. Therefore, the authority can identify who owns which drone, given that a complaint is filed about it.
Aircraft flying into/over conflicting zones was also included as an agenda at the IFALPA SCM. Such a flight can fall prey to an attack at any time while flying over those zones.
Aviation security experts also discussed about security screening and enhanced electronic access control system to assess crew identity.
"Pilots are the ultimate users of the aircraft they operate, the airspace through which they navigate and the airports into which they fly to/from. They are, therefore, in a unique position to provide an important perspective based purely on safety and security considerations," explained Hossain.
Apart from these, the subject of human trafficking was also discussed at length and was made a permanent agenda of the committee, in an effort to raise awareness among pilots on this worrying issue much prevalent in Bangladesh.
Most of us think human trafficking is carried out through ships. However, it is common in flights too.
"Our cabin crew does not receive any training to identify possible individuals or groups being trafficked. So we emphasised on making a policy to provide relevant basic training to cabin crews as well as a guidance material."
Post meeting activity
After listing the recommendations derived from the discussions of the IFALPA Meetings, it will be sent as a draft to the member countries of ICAO. If the recommendations receive positive feedback from the majority, then it is further pursued in a more appropriate form.
On the note of effectiveness, usually 95 per cent of the recommendations are implemented, he said.
"However, we must keep in mind that it takes at least three years to execute an initiative in any industry. If it is urgent, then it is carried out as Standard Recommen-dation and Practice (SRP). Later it becomes mandatory for all once passed as law," said the Executive Vice President.
For instance, Mongolia has a tricky airport. Only one side of it can be used for flight operations since the other is covered with mountains. So if the wind is not favourable, planes sit idle for hours. The ones in the sky cannot land and those on the ground cannot take off.
Thus, a few years ago, during IFALPA's regional meeting in the country, the organisation recommended the authorities to build a new airport to cater to the increasing amount of passenger and frequency.
Following that, the government of Mongolia is soon about to open a new airport which will allow flights to operate from both sides, expressed Hossain.
Then, at the time when Malaysia Airlines was shut down, with IFALPA's recommendation to develop the aviation industry in Malaysia, the Aviation Minister formed a national aviation council where all the agencies became members.
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