CARGO
SECURITY
TRANSPARENT SOLUTIONS
Nicolas Ouakli, Cargo & Mail
Screening Global Solutions Manager
at CEIA, comments on the growing
demand for metal detection
It might surprise readers to
learn that the use of metal
detection for air cargo
screening purposes is quite
recent. In the wake of the 9/11
terrorism events, the aviation
sector was forced to adopt
more stringent methodologies,
although the truth is that some
airlines and some countries had
in place robust systems before
this time. Ouakli takes up the
story.
“Metal detection equipment
was effectively introduced in
the early part of this century as
part of the standard screening
methods deployed by both the
European Commission and the
US TSA. This was motivated by
specifi c problem areas that were
identifi ed within the industry
during the previous decade.
Indeed, commodities such as
perishable goods, print media
and other organic material
revealed themselves to be too
challenging for the existing
The bane of today’s traveller has been that
of having to separate items from carry-on
bags. New technology is helping, though
100% screening no matter
the type of fl ight, whilst some
others typically only screen
the freight going on to the
passenger fl ights. Faced with
such a disparity, it is impossible
to judge the global effectiveness
of air cargo screening.
The challenges to anyone
working in this sector remain,
however.
Most stakeholders from
the air cargo industry are
confronted by the same
challenge, in that they are
requested to go through
screening very quickly, given
the extremely tight schedules
that prevail. In order to do that,
technologies such as X-Ray and
ETD because of the physical
limitations of the technologies
with regard to the density
and nature of the goods to be
screened. Thus various civil
aviation authorities recognised
that metal detection was the
most suitable technology to
perform security screening on
this type of freight.”
Effi ciency and reality
Trying to gauge the effectiveness
of the screening currently
being deployed when it comes
to freight is not an easy task,
however. Ouakli relates that it
is impossible to answer such a
question since air cargo security
programmes tend to be different
in each geographical zone.
Some areas, he says, perform
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