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Aviation History
1975
1975 - 0091.PDF
[FkDHCW INTEBMATIOWAL <i IPC Transport Press Ltd 1975 Dorset House, Stamford Street, London SE1 9LU Subscriptions: B. J. F. Nason, Oakfield House, Perrymoun! Road, Haywards Heath, Sussex RH16 3DH; Tel 0444 53281 A subscription form is at the back of this issue 2nd-class postage paid at New York; USA news-stand distribu tion by Eastern News Distributors, 155 W 15th Si New York 10011 Thursday 16 January 1975 Number 3436 Volume 107 Founded in 1909 First aeronautical weekly in the world Official organ of the United Service and Royal Aero Club Telephone: 01-261 8070 (Editorial) 01-261 8081 (Advertisement Sales) 01-261 8392 (Advertisement Production) Telegrams/Telex: Bisnespres Ldn, 25137 Publishing Director Maurice A. Smith, DFC Advertisement Manager David Holmes Assistant Advertisement Manager (Europe) Jeremy Miller International Business Press Associates ibpa Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations [ABCj Editor J. M. Ramsden Assistant Editor Hugh Field International Editor Mark Lambert Technical Editor Michael Wilson, BSc. CEng, FBIS, MRAeS Assistant Editor (Technical) Andrew Hofton, MSc Editorial Staff Brendan Gallagher Charles M. Gilson Ian R. Goold Charles Heathcote-Smith Mark Hewish David Kent Nigel H. Moll Stephen Piercey Bill Sweetman Air Photography Tom Hamill Beating the hijacker The hijacker's success rate is so poor, and has been for two years or more, that the world may well wonder why attempts are still made. Whether the motive is political, criminal or— like that of the pathetic hijacker in London last week—personal, the result is now almost always failure. This is of little comfort to the cap tain and his crew and their passengers looking down the barrel of a gun, or at a fuzed grenade. There is always a first time for the disaster-free record of western countries to be broken. Hijacking remains a major air- safety hazard, and it can never be wholly eliminated. No lawgiver or enforcer can guarantee to protect society against the armed political fanatic, criminal, or the mentally de ranged. But the law—especially inter national law—combined with airport security measures and crew disci pline can make life for the hijacker even hotter than it is. An article in this issue reviews the international law on hijacking, and suggests that the time is right for the 1971 Hague Convention, which calls for the punishment of hijackers, to be widened and strengthened. Countries which used to give haven to hijackers now close their airports. Cuba has signed in effect an ex tradition treaty with the United States. Hijackers can be as big a nui sance to their hosts as to their victims. This may well be a good moment to get more signatures on the Hague Convention. This sets the standard by which civilised behaviour may be judged. The treaty could also be given more bite—to include, perhaps, the elusive extradition provision or at least option. The law will be broken, but there is little excuse for airports and air lines who fail to screen passengers at the aircraft boarding gate. In tfte United States, where hijacking was invented and developed, passengers even at village airports have to be screened before boarding. The Fed eral Aviation Administration fines airlines which fail in this. The result, helped no doubt by the political agree ment with Cuba, is that there has been no successful airliner hijacking in the USA for two years. Mr Peter Shore, Britain's Secretary of State for Trade, may well have been right to put a committee to work on airport security after the British Airways VC10 hijacking at Dubai. But his secret advice that only one in two domestic flights needed to be checked (apart from Belfast) con trasts with the FAA's policy, set out in published rules, that all passengers on all flights must be screened. We do not need a committee to discover that any flight may be a terrorist's ransom. Procedures in the event of a hi jacking depend on circumstances, but certain ground rules seem to have emerged. Safe airlines have standard hijacking drills spelt out in check-list form—as for engine failures and every other kind of emergency. Get ting on good personal terms with the terrorists is clearly a priority, but this requires back-up from the control centre. A team headed by the appro priate Government department—the DoT in Britain—should always be ready on hot alert, including not only the airline's hijacking task force— ideally the managing director, chief pilot, chief medical officer, and a radio communications specialist—but also senior officials of the Govern ment's main foreign and home de partments in charge of the police and armed forces, and linguists. The operation has to have a clear chain of command, and experience suggests that, outside the cockpit, the best commander is a senior civil ser vant or minister rather than a police or army officer. Mr Stainton of British Airways and Mr Craig of the Foreign Office, who helped to handle the Dubai hijacking so well, together with hijacked cap tains and crews, are the sort of peo ple to give the best advice on hijack ing countermeasures. One of the critical areas, as in so many things, is communications: the scrambling of radio transmissions may be much needed in the heat and terror of a hijacking. British Shuttle "There are too many overbooked passengers. There is a good deal of waiting about in airport lounges and at pier gates . . . The Croydon mode of buying air carriage is due for re tirement. British Airways and British Caledonian should now extend their operational and technical excellence to passenger service and con venience . . . Why not a Shuttle?" These words, from this page a couple of years ago, prompted the British Airways study which earlier this week resulted in Europe's first genuine Shuttle service (page 55). No need to book, or telephone, or buy advance tickets: just turn up at the airport knowing you are guaran teed a seat—on the hour every hour. This is air transport at its most con sumer-conscious, and the State airline (admittedly with the higher volume of traffic) is responsible for the innovation. Management and unions are to be congratulated on their enterprise and modern outlook. IN THIS ISSUE World News Air Transport Light Commercial Defence Private Flight Back to the balloon Letters Avionics New policy for European aircraft Industry Spaceflight Straight and Level 54 57 63 64 68 69 73 75 77 78 79 80 Front cover: This scene at the 1974 Reading Show demonstrates that not all current aviation depends on aerodynamic lift. A description of the manufacture of one form of lighter-than-air craft, the hot-air balloon, begins on page 69.
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