London Heathrow workers question safety of Flight Guard anti-missile system
Trade union officials are pressing aviation authorities to reveal the exact potential safety issues that El Al’s invisible “dark flare” anti-missile technology poses to its 30,000 members working at London Heathrow airport.
Aviation authorities in Europe are remaining tight-lipped about the Elta Flight Guard missile defence system, but are understood to have now approved its use on the Israeli flag carrier’s passenger aircraft operating to their airports.
In the UK, the ejecting of flares could contravene articles 66 and 69 of the Air Navigation Order (ANO) prohibiting the dropping of articles and animals and the carriage of weapons and of munitions of war.
A senior certification expert told Flight International that an accidental deployment on the ground at an airport – due to a system failure or human error – could endanger maintenance and ground personnel while, in flight on an approach, it could put other aircraft in peril.
The UK’s Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) acknowledges the heightened security threat globally, but urges the safety authorities to supply detailed information about the system. “We would want to make sure that the strictest possible guidelines in terms of safety for our members at airports apply and that we are consulted before that system is in use.”
The European Aviation Safety Agency – which has no jurisdiction as neither the airline nor manufacturer is European – confirms that the imminent application of dark flare technology on civilian aircraft has generated numerous recent enquiries. “We have been approached by Switzerland, asking about the implications of allowing El Al to fly an aircraft over its territory carrying such technology,” it says.
UK airports operator BAA, the UK Civil Aviation Authority and the Department for Transport decline to comment on Flight Guard, citing security issues.
The Israeli aviation authority certificated the Flight Guard countermeasures system in January, and it has now been installed on an El Al Boeing 767. Other aircraft will be equipped in the coming weeks.
A senior source in the Israeli aviation authority says: “We do not expect problems. No European country has banned the system.”
Elta’s Flight Guard has directional sensors that activate dispensers of advanced decoy flares invisible to the human eye, developed by the Rocket Systems division of Israel Military Industries.
AIMEE TURNER / LONDON
ARIE EGOZI / TEL AVIV
Source: Flight International
