Call for tough stand on air cargo screening

The Air Cargo Operators’ Committee (Acoc) is taking a serious stance on the worrying issue of declaration, or worse the non-declaration, of dangerous cargoes, according to chairman Alwyn Rautenbach, MD of Airlink Cargo. “We plan to work with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) dangerous goods section from the beginning of next year to make everyone aware of dangerous goods and the major problem of non-declaration,” he told FTW. The big problem is that a lot of people in the airfreight industry are fooled by the apparent innocuous appearance of goods which are, in fact, extremely dangerous. Items like lead acid and lithium-ion batteries, which are widely used in products such as portable consumer electronic devices and spray cans of hairspray and oven cleaner, for example, are items which innocently sit around in people’s houses, but which can have serious consequences when transported by air, according to Rautenbach. “What we are looking for is compulsory screening of goods,” said Rautenbach, “particularly those being handed in by ‘regulated agents’ and ‘known consignors’ as ‘known cargo’, cargoes that are less strictly dealt with than cargoes from unknown parties. “The idea of this is to heighten awareness of just what constitutes dangerous goods and to stress the need for declaration of these items.” The Part 108 security regulations are not just aimed at terrorist activities, he added, but at the possibly mistaken habit of not declaring what are indeed dangerous goods by those who should be aware of them.