By Updesh Kapur/Doha
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Almost 14 years ago, the world was rocked by an unprecedented series of attacks that shook the foundation of the travel industry. |
The basic freedom of travel and the enjoyment of flying were taken away by callous aerial attacks on America on the morning of September 11, 2001.
Within the space of 77 minutes, four passenger planes crashed in the eastern half of the US.
Hijackers took control of the commercial aircraft, steering two into New York’s World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon US defence headquarters in Washington DC, while the fourth crashed into a field near the Pennsylvanian town of Shanksville.
A total of 2,977 people were killed, including all 227 passengers and 19 hijackers, with the majority of deaths in the twin towers of the World Trade Center.
The events that unfolded on 9/11 were the worst terrorist attacks in US history.
They changed the shape of travel as we see it today. Not domestically, nor regionally, but globally.
Collectively, airlines lost billions of dollars in revenue as planes were grounded for days after the attacks, passengers were left stranded with no flights departing the US or arriving into the country. The knock-on effect of aircraft and passengers in the wrong place proved a financial nightmare for many airlines.
Stringent onboard security measures and tighter airport security, including a raft of behind-the-scenes profiling of passengers by authorities and airlines were implemented to reinforce safety as number one priority.
It was a wake-up call for the aviation industry and political leaders in all corners of the world to adopt a practical and unified approach in tackling the threat of terrorism.
Huge amounts of money have been invested, and continue to be, in airport infrastructure with security levels stepped up to new heights. Yet there has also been an attempt to strike a balance and bring fun back into the flying experience when morale was at an all-time low.
Fourteen years on, the global aviation industry has been rocked yet again with safety continuing to be foremost in the international arena.
The news agenda has been dominated by two unprecedented incidents that are changing the aviation landscape. Aircraft manufacturers, airlines and governments have plenty to do in the coming weeks and months.
In a year supposedly celebrating 100 years of commercial flight, the world has witnessed two very chilling incidents that have taken the shine off the centenary activities.
Separated by four months, these incidents involve the same aircraft manufacturer, Boeing, and the same commercial airliner, Malaysia Airlines.
The mystery disappearance on March 8 of a Malaysia Airlines’ Boeing 777-200 on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing has led to numerous theories about what happened.
All 239 passengers and crew are presumed dead. An hour after take-off, the aircraft inexplicably did a U-turn and headed south towards the Indian Ocean well away from its intended flight path. Four months on, there is no trace of flight MH370.
The air and sea search efforts for the missing aircraft and those onboard covering a wide expanse of ocean has involved a multinational joint approach.
The search efforts are already the biggest and most expensive in aviation history. The fear is the aircraft has found its resting place in the southern Indian Ocean and it could take months, even up to a year, to trace the jet in some of the deepest waters on the planet.
Not happy reading for an industry supposedly celebrating its milestone 100 years of commercial flight.
The airline industry has rallied with calls to make aircraft monitoring systems more robust in light of the incident.
The presumed loss of lives would have made it the deadliest incident for Malaysia Airlines and Boeing’s 777 series, one of the safest aircraft in the skies with a virtually clean record – until this year.
Sadly, events of recent days involving another Malaysia Airlines jet, also of the Boeing 777-200 series, makes grim reading. Shot down at 33,000ft reportedly by pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine, all 298 people onboard were killed, making this the deadliest ever incident involving the airline and Boeing’s 777 programme.
The July 17 surface-to-missile attack on flight MH017 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, has left the world in utter shock, anger and disbelief with ramifications across the political spectrum as we have read, heard and seen in the media.
The harrowing scenes at the sprawling crash site of mangled wreckage and bodies lying in the baking heat for days, paint a dark period in global aviation.
It marks yet another historic moment for the wrong reasons.
Separated by 131 days, the latest incident is the world’s biggest crime scene – again, not one to acknowledge 100 years of commercial flight.
Even if this is pure coincidence, it’s never happened in history that a flag carrier has seen two wide-body aircraft disappearing in a few months with the loss of all passengers and crew.
This week, we see some European and North American airlines suspend operations to Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv after a rocket fired in hostile territory landed nearer the airstrip.
The shock waves of a new form of “missile” terror – whether deliberately targeting commercial aircraft or not – has given rise to fresh thinking among the industry’s elite on how to make travel safer.
Almost two months ago, more than 200 of the world’s aviation leaders gathered in Qatar for their annual summit at which MH370 became a talking point.
How can an aircraft just disappear and how come the high-tech aviation industry we have today with sophisticated tracking systems and satellite monitoring systems, fail?
Now, there’s talk of whether it is feasible to equip commercial aircraft with anti-missile shields to counter threats of attack through conflict zones.
The industry has plenty to think about – and actions to take quickly. It is one of camaraderie, sticking together in the interests of the aviation community and the people it serves.
There are calls, in light of last week’s shooting down of the Malaysia Airlines aircraft, for the aviation community to agree a response to the incident, including a rethink of potential threats posed by regional conflicts.
Tim Clark, president of Dubai’s Emirates, the world’s largest international airline by passenger numbers, said the international airline community needed to respond as one entity, saying it won’t tolerate being targeted in regional conflicts that have nothing to do with airlines.
He urged for new protocols to be put in place with IATA – International Air Transport Association – and UN agency International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), leading the way to see how the industry should tackle regional instability.
“If you fly East to West or vice-versa between Europe and Asia, you are likely to run into areas of conflict,” said Clark.
“We have traditionally been able to manage this. Tripoli and Kabul were attacked, Karachi was attacked and we have protocols and contingencies and procedures to deal with this,” he said.
Following the downing of MH017, he added: “Now I think there will have to be new protocols and it will be up to ICAO and IATA and the aviation community to sort out what the protocols have to be.
“Some people say planes should be armed with counter devices. That will go absolutely nowhere. If we can’t operate aircraft in a free and unencumbered manner without the threat of being taken down, then we shouldn’t be operating at all.”
This year’s incidents have plunged the industry into intense self-examination that is expected to lead to changes in the way passenger aircraft and the threats surrounding them are monitored and assessed. No easy answers.
But, for sure, a lot of talking ahead by an industry all too familiar with the challenges faced almost 14 years ago, post 9/11.
♦ Updesh Kapur is an aviation and travel expert. He can be followed on twitter @updeshkapur
