Johannesburg - The death this week of a stowaway on a flight from Johannesburg to London has again raised concerns that South African aviation security does not conform to international security standards.
An international inspection of South African airports, the findings of which were used in drafting the National Aviation Safety Plan, identified critical deficiencies. These included inadequate screening policies and an absence of designated security officers at major airports. Upgrades to emergency command centres and revisions of contingency plans were also needed.
The doomed stowaway hid, with a second stowaway, in the undercarriage of a BA aircraft and fell to his death as the flight approached Heathrow on Wednesday.
British authorities said he had landed on a roof.
It is unclear whether the man had been crouching in the wheel well, a common hiding place for stowaways.
The second man was admitted to hospital with injuries, the airline said.
Security has since been tightened, according to the Airports Company of South Africa (Acsa), which manages the major airports in the nine provinces.
Johannesburg and London are about 12 000km apart, and the flight takes 11 hours.
British Airways Flight 54, a Boeing 747, left Joburg at 7.45pm (1745 GMT) on Wednesday and landed at Heathrow at 7.26am London time on Thursday.
Investigations have been launched by the British and local authorities, who say the stowaway who died was aged between 25 and 30. The survivor is 24.
British Airways said: “We are working with the Metropolitan Police and the authorities in Johannesburg to establish the facts surrounding this rare case.”
This was the first such incident at OR Tambo International in 10 years, Acsa said.
“We are working closely with local and British authorities,” Acsa spokesman Colin Naidoo said.
“It’s a security breach… we need to find out how and why this happened. Security measures around the airport have since been heightened.”
South African Civil Aviation Authority director Poppy Khoza said the incident was worrying.
The authority was co-operating with Acsa and British officials.
In February last year, a stowaway was found dead in the wheel well of SAA Flight 207 after it landed at Dulles International Airport, Virginia, US. The flight was from Joburg and had stopped in Dakar, Senegal.
Ground crew assigned to the aircraft, an Airbus A340, found the body.
In August 2012, a man who scaled the Cape Town International Airport fence was found dead in the landing gear of a BA plane when it landed in London the next morning. Doctors concluded he had frozen to death.
South Africa prides itself on having 10 successful and busy airports. Its airports, especially OR Tambo, King Shaka and Cape Town, provide direct links to more than 200 international destinations, with more than 10 000 flights a year.
In giving the keynote address at the US-South Africa Aviation Forum in Cape Town in March, Minister of Transport Dipuo Peters said: “Quite frankly, it is an obvious matter that aviation safety has become a serious concern, a concern that is justifiable, given the growth and complexity of the aviation industry.
“The civil aviation community in South Africa has continued its compliance with current aviation safety policies within the framework of International Civil Aviation Organisation standards and recommended practices.
“We are, however, wary of complacency, and shall continue to do our utmost best to beat our own safety records.”
The state of safety measures at Acsa’s airports have often been questioned in the light of security breaches.
In 2012, then-minister of transport Ben Martins told Parliament that investigations were under way to determine what had allowed alarming security breaches to occur at South African airports.
Pistols, knives and firearm magazine clips were among the items that had slipped through South African airports over four years.
Martins categorised security breaches under the administration of Acsa as unlawful access to restricted areas and screening failures.
He said that in the 2011 financial year, there had been six recorded cases of people entering restricted areas – five at OR Tambo International and one at Cape Town International Airport.
Five of them were caught, and the sixth died while stowing away on a flight.
Three cases of “screening failures” were reported, two at OR Tambo International and one in Cape Town.
A loaded magazine for a firearm was found in the luggage of a passenger from a neighbouring country.
Also, a staff member had entered the airport with a knife.
Other incidents that involved security breaches at South Africa’s national key points in recent years include:
* In March 2006, R100 million was stolen at OR Tambo International Airport when heavily armed men held up guards and police on board an SAA plane, before making off with bags of money that had been flown from the UK.
The robbery took place on the airport perimeter, meaning planes could not refuel and about 20 domestic and international flights were prevented from taking off for hours.
* In February 2009, 15 SAA crew members were arrested at Heathrow airport in London after cocaine had been found in the hand luggage of one of the crew members.
It was the second time in a month that an SAA crew member had been accused of being found in possession of contraband.
In the first case, 50kg of dagga and 4kg of cocaine were discovered on an SAA crew bus at Heathrow.
* In October 2013, cable theft at OR Tambo International Airport resulted in flights being delayed for 24 hours.
l Security was beefed up at OR Tambo International Airport in 2007 following an exposé by our sister publication, The Star, of a lack of vigilance in its supposedly high-security area.
This was after two journalists from The Star had gained access to the runway a week earlier without being stopped and asked to show any identification.
According to the SAPS annual report for April 1, 2013 to March 31 last year, officials at King Shaka International Airport and Cape Town International Airport were among at least 18 officials who had been arrested on corruption allegations that related to 12 cases.
The Sunday Independent