With all the recent talk on airport security, I find it strange that as a commercial pilot I can walk in and out of airport secure areas simply by showing my pilots licence, which has no photograph.
Anybody could be holding the licence. Sometimes I do not wear a uniform, but the document is enough to gain me access.
My old licence used to have a photograph and functioned as a passport to enter the UK. I believe the new JAR licence has no photograph either.
Pilots based at airports have identification cards. Should not the UK Civil Aviation Authority issue commercial pilots with these?
Philip Amadeus Redhill, UK
Source: Flight International
