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ICAO for meet on aviation security

Ajit Jain in Toronto

A resolution calling for an unprecedented and high-level international conference on aviation security was proposed on Thursday at the 33rd session of the Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organisation.

"The terrorist attacks of September 11 in the United States represent the greatest threat ever to civil aviation security. For the first time, aircraft have been used as weapons of destruction. Such acts have no place in our civilised society. Our primary objective at this assembly is to identify the means by which we can eradicate this new threat and restore confidence in a system that remains fundamentally safe, secure and efficient," ICAO Secretary General Dr Assad Kotaite said.

The resolution directed the ICAO council to urgently develop an action plan to address the new threat to civil aviation, including a review of the existing aviation security conventions and of Annex 17 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, ICAO's charter.

Annex 17 and related guidance material contained the internationally approved Standards and Recommended Practices and Procedures on aviation security. Until Annex 17 was revised, the resolution suggested interim measures, including applicability of Annex 17 to domestic flights -- a recommendation to require cockpit doors to remain locked during the flight and upgrading of provisions regarding airport security controls.

The resolution also urgeed all 187 contracting states, including India, to hold accountable those who misused civil aviation as weapons of destruction.

"It is crucial that the contracting states intensify their efforts towards the full implementation of the ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices and Procedures relating to aviation security, to monitor such implementation and to take all appropriate security measures," Kotaite stated.

The resolution also called on special funding for urgent action by ICAO in the field of aviation security and urged the states to increase their existing contributions to ICAO's aviation security mechanism.

The date and the place for the proposed conference would be decided on October 5, the last day of the current ICAO session, when there would be a voting on this and other resolutions.

ICAO was created as a specialised agency of the United Nations in 1944 to promote the safe and orderly development of civil aviation in the world and it has 187 contracting states.

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