Airline security continues to tighten

The security measures which foiled the attempted Ryanair plane hijacking are part of a huge anti-terrorist operation mounted by aviation authorities since September 11.

European measures were already fairly stringent in the years before the terrorist attacks on the United States.

Now, as any passenger who has boarded a plane in recent months will know, security has tightened even further.

For example, no UK-departing passengers are allowed to carry sharp objects in their hand luggage.

UK Department for Transport regulations mean that even a pair of tweezers in a sponge bag would be deemed unacceptable.

Such an item, together with nail scissors and other sharp objects, now has to be packed into the cases that are stored in aircraft holds.

There are also very firm rules about bag reconciliation or, as the Americans call it, bag matching.

Ths involves ensuring that if passengers are late boarding a plane - they could, quite innocently, be doing last-minute duty-free shopping - their bag is taken off the flight and only put back on when they appear.

This process was, and remains, seen as a counter to the terrorist who plants an explosive device on an aircraft but fails to travel.

But the events of September 11 showed that fanatics were prepared to board and sacrifice themselves to down an aircraft.

To cope with this, airlines, including UK carriers, are fitting reinforced, bullet-proof cockpit doors to aircraft to prevent anyone barging or shooting their way into the flight deck.

British Airways, for example, has already fitted new doors to all its aircraft and plans to introduce even-tougher doors in the next few months.

BA and other airlines have also installed closed-circuit television cameras to enable the flight deck crew to see who is just outside the cockpit.

“Europe was doing a pretty good job of security even before September 11,” said David Learmount, operations and safety editor of Flight International magazine.

He went on: “We now have metal detectors and the X-raying of all hold luggage. The cockpit door reinforcement will make it very difficult to take over a plane and, after September 11, passengers would be expected to take action if they saw anything suspicious.

“In the past, the plan would have been to do what the hijackers said and then negotiate with them on the ground. Now, there would be no way that flight crew would let anyone on to the flight deck and passengers would not hold back in tackling the terrorists.”

Mr Learmount added: “There has been some disquiet about the rule on sharp objects in hand luggage. But frequent travellers are beginning to realise that it’s very silly to carry these kind of items in your toothbrush bag.

“Security is so tight now on US domestic flights that I’ve heard stories of some business executives driving 600 miles to a conference rather than take the plane, because of all the hassle.”