Guard your US flights, America orders rest of world
The United States has ordered other governments to obey a new American requirement placing armed sky marshals on some flights to prevent hijackings, as the nation approached the New Year with terror threats high.
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said the US would enforce the armed guards requirement and also assured Americans concerned about holiday air travel that aviation in the United States since September 11, 2001 “has risen to new heights of security”.
He encouraged Americans to continue with their holiday plans, even amid the orange alert level, or high alert status, put in place more than a week ago.
“The full force of Homeland Security all across this nation is at work to keep you safe,” he said yesterday.
The orange alert would stay in effect through the holidays and possibly beyond, Ridge said. Officials have not seen a reduction in air travel since the alert.
The new directive Ridge outlined requires selected international flights that cross into US airspace to carry an armed law enforcement officer aboard. The Homeland Security Department required such officers on flights where intelligence information led to a specific concern about that plane, department spokesman Dennis Murphy said.
“We will then notify the carrier that, based on information we received, we require a law enforcement officer to be on the plane,” Murphy said.
For months, US security officials have feared that al-Qaida operatives would again hijack planes to use them as missiles. The most recent concerns centre not on domestic passenger flights, but on airliners or cargo planes that take off from overseas and cross over US airspace, either on their way to a US airport or to a foreign one.
The Bush administration raised the terrorism alert level to orange, or high, on December 21 and Air France cancelled six flights between Paris and Los Angeles on Wednesday and Thursday, after security discussions between US and French officials.
French Transport Ministry spokesman Olivier Mousson said yesterday that US security agents had inspected security at French airports since the United States raised its alert level.
Ridge said the United States, like any nation, had the right to forbid foreign airlines from entering its air space unless they complied with the new requirements.
“Ultimately, a denial of access is the leverage that you have,” Ridge said.
Aviation security experts said the announcement marks a significant change in that, up until now, international security guidelines have been voluntary.
“In the past, no country has ever tried to impose on other countries any measures of aviation security,” said Rafi Ron, president of New Age Security Solutions, a Washington-based consultancy, and the former security director for the Israeli Airport Authority.
Ron predicted that despite concerns about armed air marshals expressed by British pilots and others, the measure would be enforced without much resistance because of the huge importance of the US market to foreign carriers.
