Much of the security is on the passenger side of the terminal, Geoff Askew says, not on the tarmac
Australia’s smaller and regional airports are rife with security vulnerabilities, industry insiders have warned, after the dramatic citizen’s arrest of a teenager who allegedly boarded a Jetstar flight with a shotgun and ammunition.
Police charged a 17-year-old Victorian boy with a range of offences, including unlawfully taking control of an aircraft, orchestrating a bomb hoax and possessing a firearm.
There is no permanent police presence – either state or federal – stationed at Avalon airport, near Geelong, about 50km south-west of Melbourne, where the alleged offences occurred. This is the case for most of the nation’s airports that are not designated to meet the security threshold required for such measures.
The lack of police has raised alarms within the aviation sector.
On Thursday afternoon, the boy allegedly broke through the airport’s security fence dressed in hi-vis and with tools. Witnesses said they believed he was a maintenance worker.
He then walked up to a plane on the tarmac – Jetstar flight 610 – where about 150 passengers had boarded the Airbus A320 bound for Sydney.
Shortly after entering the cabin, crew and passengers noticed he was allegedly carrying a shotgun and ammunition. Former shearer and boxer Garry Clark, from seat 1C, tackled him to the ground.
Clark and other passengers performed a citizen’s arrest, and had to wait for state police from the local area command 9km away to arrive and take the teen into custody.
The Transport Workers Union, a key aviation union that represents ground workers among others, sought an urgent meeting with Jetstar on Friday to call for a review of security arrangements at Avalon airport, operated by transport logistics company Linfox.
While it hosts few commercial flights – about 20 daily departures and arrivals combined – these are all operated by budget carrier Jetstar, which markets the airport as serving Melbourne. Avalon’s air fares have a slightly cheaper base rate than services from Melbourne airport in Tullamarine, a shorter 14km from the city.
Geoff Askew, a former director of security and emergency planning for Qantas, now principal of the risk consulting group Askew and Associates, has previously raised alarm that regional airports that only welcome planes with 40 seats or fewer are exempt from security scanners to screen passengers.
The Morrison government further watered down the laws in 2020, allowing additional airports to remove their security scanners to cut costs.
Askew, who also held positions in the Australian Defence Force and Victoria police, said the alleged breach at Avalon was a reminder that “airports are not military camps”.
“Yes, there’s a degree of security, most of it is within the passenger side of the terminal [as opposed to the tarmac],” he said.
“At the moment, you’ve still got vulnerabilities through cargo sheds and catering businesses at an airport. You would need a very expensive fence to prevent an intruder, and eventually these costs are passed on to the passenger.”
Such considerations are front of mind for airports. Rex pulled out of several regional airports, such as Whyalla, after Qantas launched rival services with aircraft that seat more than 40 passengers, forcing the airports to introduce security screening.
The additional costs were split across all airlines using the airport, and were said to have such an inflationary impact on Rex’s ticket costs that it dropped several routes.
On Friday afternoon, the Australian federal police said in a statement that the counter-terrorism and special investigations command was working alongside Victoria police.
Askew said those investigating the breach were likely considering if Avalon’s fence needed upgrading, and whether AI-assisted CCTV could be installed to detect alerts or patrols could be instated.
One aviation insider, a former veteran maintenance engineer with Qantas, told Guardian Australia that they considered the airport’s fence easily breachable in the middle of the night.
“You can do a monumental amount of damage at an airport at night. Each night, after the crew goes to the motel, the airport manager goes home for dinner, there’s nobody there. There’s no security monitoring; you could smash the window of a small plane and be in the air within two minutes.”
“There’s so many glaringly obvious vulnerabilities in security, a more serious incident is just waiting to happen,” they said.
The Avalon airport chief executive, Ari Suss, said the organisation was working with Victoria police.
“As part of our ongoing commitment to security, we have implemented further measures across the airport, including within the terminal and surrounding areas,” he said in a statement.
– with AAP