The Sinai plane crash
Introduction
The aviation industry has faced many terrorism activities and threats since terrorists attack the planes in order to seek the world’s attention (Thomas, 2008). A number of terrorism activities have happened such as the Sinai plane crash, Somalia plane crash, attacks in the international airport in Brussels, the Paris shooting and bombing among many others. The terrorists target the aviation industry suggesting that it is an attractive target (Price & Forrest, 2012). The attacks are fatal, clear fear amongst the people thus terrorists feel they have achieved even attention from the media (Tahmisoğlu et al, 2009). Therefore this paper will focus on describing the Sinai plane crash and how the incident led to scrutiny of the airports screening processes and security at large.
A Russian metrojet ferrying about 224 people both passengers and crew was reported to have crashed soon after taking off on 31st October 2015 (Bassiouni, 2016). Both Egyptian and Russian officials confirmed that all people on board were killed. The plane, Airbus A321-200 disappeared 25 minutes after taking off according to what officials reported (Stephanopoulos et al, 2015). The Egyptian transportation manager noted that nothing unusual happened before the plane crashed since the pilot did not report anything abnormal before the crash happened. There were earlier news reported that the pilot had reported some technical problems and wanted an emergency landing. The Egyptian minister however denied these claims suggested that the plane did not experience any technical problem before crashing. The minister confirmed that communication was efficient and normal between the pilot and the tower indicating that everything was fine. The plane is said to have disappeared suddenly without prior warning because communication was normal between the pilot and the tower (Abougabal, 2015).
The Russian embassy in Cairo confirmed that no survivors were reported from the fatal crash. Hours after the crash took place, an Islamic terror group popularly known as ISIS claimed to have been responsible for the plane crash (Abougabal, 2015). Both Egypt and Russia governments did not believe in these claims since the terrorists lack necessary weapons to bring down a plane which is over 20,000 feet above the ground (Abougabal, 2015). The terrorists are known to attack landing or planes which are taking off (Stewart & Mueller, 2013) thus the governments denied the claims since the plane was at very high attitude above the ground. The governments looked at the possibility of a bomb which would have been planted in the plane. The plane crashed shortly before it landed at airport in El-Arish in the northern Sinai spreading the wreckage over long distances. For instance the body of a three old girl was found 5 miles from the scene of the fatal crash (Nora-Ide, 2015).
Russian security later confirmed that the plane had been brought down by terrorists which confirmed that as an act of terror. Foreign explosives were found on the debris from the plane indicating that terrorists had been involved (Abougabal, 2015). The Russian president said that the culprits would be found and punished for the cowardly act of terror. A bomb is confirmed to have been planted on the plane which split the metrojet on the 31st October 2015 killing all the people on board (Abougabal, 2015). Pieces of the plane scattered and dispersed over the long distances as a result of the bomb planted by the terrorists. The terror group reported to have bombed the Russian plane because of the Russian air strikes which happened in Syria. In addition, the terror group confirmed to have been responsible for shootings and bombing which happened in Paris killing over 120 people and injuring many others.
The Russian presidents after the terror groups claim said that the Russian air strikes would be intensified since the government had nothing to negotiate with the terror group (Abougabal, 2015). The Russian government supported the Syrian government against the terror groups which the president confirmed they would not withdraw their warplanes as a result of the cowardly terror attack by the Islamic group. The world was however shocked by the Egyptian intelligence as well as the airport security since they could have prevented the crime (Abougabal, 2015). The Egyptian government reported to have fully controlled Sinai yet terrorists were able to bomb the plane killing so many Russian terrorist. This meant a decrease in tourists who toured Egypt since insecurity was vivid since the terrorists attacked at the doorstep of Egypt. The Egypt interior security reported that it intensified security at the airport and that there were no security shortcomings when the fatal crash happened (Abougabal, 2015).
The interior security denied to have detained two airport employees in connection with the crime. After the crash happened, both Russia and Britain said they would suspend the flights to the red sea resort because of insecurity reasons. Egypt would suffer losses from the tourism industry since it has Russia and Britain as their main tourists thus getting much income from the tourism industry (Abougabal, 2015). Confirmation that a bomb had been planted on the plane brought to that decision where Britain and Russia suspended their flights to Egypt. The Egyptian government though denied that indeed traces of a homemade bomb had been found on the debris. However both Britain and Russian governments believed that a bomb had indeed been planted by the terrorists after the Russian FBI announced from the research they carried out (Abougabal, 2015). Security experts suggested that confirmation of a possible bomb would have less impact on most European flights. Security concerns would be raised over the airports beyond Sharm el-Sheikh. It was said that current European standards used to screen luggage and checking people should prove efficient and sufficient in order to prevent such a crime from taking place again.
It was noted that some airports did not have right gadgets for performing x-rays on bags which puts people at risk (Nyampong, 2012). Terrorists are said to target airports thus governments should ensure that intense security measures are put in place in order to note unusual things that would end up causing problems (Ghobrial & Irvin, 2004). Staffs going into restricted areas should be screened since reports suggested that the bomb might have been in the staffs’ luggage since passengers luggage is screened thoroughly. Intense security measures have currently been put in place where all peoples luggage are screened inclusive of the staff. Carrying out thoroughly screening on everybody reduces chances of explosives and other substances getting in the planes (Clapper, 2014). New technology has been indeed put in place in most airports such that any possible explosive is noted before causing harm to the people (Archick, 2011). Some report suggested that passengers would pay some staff at Sharm el-Sheikh in order to bypass the long security queue which is dangerous. All people should be screened thoroughly thus this incident ensured that security measures in most airports were intensified in order to prevent such crimes from taking place again.
Conclusion
From the above discussion it can be evidently concluded that the aviation industry faces challenges terror being one of the major challenges. The Sinai plane crash attack was one of the fatal attacks that the industry has faced, apart from the 11 September attack. The attacks cause deaths to various innocent people thus the aviation industry need to be vigilant in its security in order to prevent such loss of many lives. Currently security measures have been put in place in various airports as one measure of preventing terrorism activities in order to prevent deaths which cause morning to various countries and the world at large.
References
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