The reported overnight graffiti attack on a commercial 35-seater Dash-8 airliner parked at Perth International Airport, as reported by the media on 30 May 2007 has surprisingly drawn little public comment and presumably no widely shared alarm at the implications. The most but still limited interest seems to have surfaced in brief weblog discussions involving a small number of aviation industry people. The offender or offenders allegedly compromised the perimeter fence and tagged the aircraft without detection. So much for that perimeter barrier - a very thin frontline.
On 13 June 2007 The Daily Telegraph published the headline ‘Sydney Airport in security farce' when it disclosed that it had been able to gain ‘easy and unfettered access to potential terror targets at Australia's largest airport'. The newspaper decided to carry out its own tests in the immediate news wake of the arrests of the alleged New York John F. Kennedy [JFK] International airport, bomb-plot conspirators.
These and other embarrassing revelations about security of our commercial aviation system may not trouble local observers from the public and private sectors, but they should. There is no room for ‘she'll be right' when it comes to protection of airline passengers and the viability of air service operations.
We cannot without a sense of responsibility for our future stand outside the airport fence and shrug our shoulders or leave the safety and security of essential air services to industry and government alone. We have a role to play in counter-terrorism too.
If we cannot secure our systems at home, then our international aviation security standards will come under closer scrutiny. Australians represent a prolific national source of international airline passengers, and we are recognized as a participating ally in the global war against terror. It is preferable that the first to examine our security more closely are not suicidal terrorists, but instead are the ‘friendly' overseas international regulators with whom we have sufficiently good relations to negotiate.
International flights to the United States are arguably the most stringently monitored for security protocol compliance, and non-American air carriers can pick up costly penalties for provable violations of those protocols.
For many of us the Flight Attendants are the onboard frontline for our safety and security. Some of us are guilty of taking them for granted. We even talk or yawn while they go through the essential pre-flight safety demonstration. We assume for the most part that the cabin crew, now separated from a closed and locked flight deck and with greater responsibility for cabin event responses, is truly a team of equals. With individual and collective effectiveness, they are the ones who are well trained, up to date, vigilant, and ever ready to get us through a host of scary possibilities. That's what we want to believe and we fervently hope is always the case. Reality tells us that may not be so.
Before moving on, from our observations as passengers, and as safety trainers in differing emergency safety and security arenas, we do believe that wherever there is evidence - cabin crew body language, eye contact, a positive customer service attitude and clear signs of occupational enjoyment, our confidence is generally justified.
It is too simple however to expect that a good airline employer alone can create such a positive environment and flight crew outlook. Too many other factors make up the equation when it comes to safety and security. One of them is the receptivity of those responsible for supporting and providing critical communications systems about suspicious incidents.
Enter the graffiti dimension once again. This time in the US. On board the plane; and not once, not one plane, but too many times and aircraft to ignore. At least that's what most right minded people would say.
From an Ohio State USA History source we find the following:
On June 30, 1974, Marcus Chenault, a twenty-one year old, African-American man from Ohio, murdered Alberta Williams King. King was sitting at the organ in the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, while a church service was in session. Chenault also killed a church deacon during this rampage. King was the mother of Martin Luther King, Jr. It remains unclear why Chenault killed King, although the murderer apparently hoped to kill other African-American leaders as well. After the incident, he stated that "all Christians are my enemies."
The name Chenault, along with other ‘inscriptions' according to one website report has been found by flight attendants conducting routine but disciplined inspections of concealed portions of aircraft lavatories. Most so called ‘taggers' like their work to be seen. This conveys a different psychological profile.
All discoveries involved US scheduled air carriers; most were domestic and at least one involved an international flight. Experienced flight attendants found and reported what at first appeared to be a mysterious combination or permutation of words and phrases.
The first known finding -‘CHENAULT LIVES' together with the word ‘ZATU' and another set, occurred in February 2005.
The next recorded discovery ‘CHENAULT IS KING' a repeat of earlier words was made in April 2006. The story has a grim tone with the third finding of this ‘graffiti' in August 2006, during the heightening of airline security tensions worldwide due to the ‘liquid bomb plot' arrests in the United Kingdom. Yet even at this very sensitive time, our frontline was left wanting - unable to convince anyone in authority or with a response capability, to take this seriously.
Further onboard discoveries of this ‘Chennault graffiti series' reportedly took place in December 2006 and January 2007. Photos were taken by flight attendants and yes, reports were made to airline captains, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and to Air Marshals. So far as we are aware, no action of any substance was pursued.
The frontline of flight attendants deserves more support than this. It is vitally important to motivate those who are being vigilant - exactly as we ask and train them. But it seems that those who should know best still have not learned the lessons of 9-11. They must learn to support the frontline; encourage them with intelligent feedback; and do not wittingly or unwittingly subscribe to the comfort zone attitude of ‘it won't happen again'.
The full story makes interesting reading and can be found here: American Graffiti or Al Qaeda Threat?
Material has been reproduced here from The Aviation Nation, with our thanks to Annie Jacobsen, the California based journalist and founder of that website.
Rick Guy
Perth
19 June 2007
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