The United Nations aviation agency is drawing up a new list of items that passengers cannot carry on the board the aircraft in its continuing effort to make travel safe and thwart any attempt by terrorist to blow up planes.
The list of prohibited items includes liquid, gel and aerosol products, which can be used for improvising explosive devices.
The International Explosives Technical Commission of the UN International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is now meeting to review the work of a panel set up in the wake of thwarted terrorist plot to blow up airliners coming to the United States from Britain. The agency says that the new list will be issued to its 189 contracting states by the end of November.
"The issuance of a revised list of prohibited items is a complex matter involving law enforcement, explosives technologies, evaluation of trace detection equipment, training of security personnel, logistics and commercial considerations," ICAO Council President Roberto Kobeh Gonzalez said last week.
Earlier this month, ICAO's Aviation Security (AVSEC) panel reviewed an expanded list of prohibited items prepared by the Organisation's Secretariat. In the coming weeks, the panel will incorporate appropriate national and regional initiatives taken to date to deal with the new threat posed by liquid, gel and aerosol products.
"The panel is working diligently on ways to strengthen and streamline security procedures at airports," Kobeh Gonzalez said. The reports of AVSEC and the technical commission will be presented to the ICAO Council at its next session beginning on October 10.
Once the recommendations are adopted, ICAO will notify all member states of various issues related to liquids used as explosives, including: a new list of prohibited items; measures needed to counter the new threat; ongoing work on technologies and operational procedures for detecting prohibited liquids; and the need for new measures to be effective, practicable, sustainable and harmonised.
Special emphasis will be placed on close cooperation with intelligence agencies and aviation regulators. A mechanism to rapidly share significant security information on an international basis will be provided. In the longer term, ICAO will revise its security standards and guidance to deal proactively with this new threat and others that may emerge, focussing on further enhancing airside security, including staff screening and cargo, catering and hold baggage security.
"Our overall security objective is two fold: to diligently assess new and emerging threats to aviation, and continually monitor and upgrade processes to ensure they are commensurate with the level of threat identified; and, to expedite the clearance of passengers and cargo at airports while maintaining the highest level of security," Kobeh Gonzalez said.
