Security breach in Nice airport - Safety and security illustrated

On a very recent flight out of Nice airport, on the french riviera, I could observe a security breach. I report this story here to illustrate the way security and safety are dealt with in air-transport industry, and that even the stronger system is only as strong as its weakest element.

I don't know anything about how security is handled in Nice, but I've quite an idea how important access control is, particularly regarding access of passengers to planes. The security system is supposed to prevent any unauthorized access to planes or airside areas. As any system, it is made of equipments (doors, locks, badge readers, ...), procedures (who is allowed to open, what to monitor, close behind yourself, ...) and humans (staff, crews, ...).

This is often depicted as a triangle, and each possible risk relates to one of the angles, and is mitigated by one or both of the others. Typically, there are special procedures to cover an equipment failure, humans are monitoring the automatics in the equipment, and so on...

Now that we described the basic approach, let me tell you what I saw today while waiting for boarding. An airline crew was going to its plane via the waiting hall. For an unclear reason, they were not accompanied by any groud staff (procedure ?). Apparently the captain knew how to unlock the gate.

One of the flight attendant opened the second gate as the rest of the crew were going thourgh the first one. The captain probably did not saw that the second gate has been opened, but when the whole crew continued on its way to the airplane, this second gate remained open.

The abnormal thing here is that the flight attendant who opened the second gate did not closed it (human), and no-one crosschecked it (procedure / human). This gate remained open for approximately 45 minutes. There is an equipment question here, as there could be an alarm or a limit to the time a non-staffed gate can be open.

As a matter of fact, this gate was open without being staffed nor monitored for about 45 minutes, until I mentionned it to the boarding agent of my own flight when I did get on.

The question is then "how to make the system better, without preventing any business activity, and at affordable price ?". This is a very important question in the security and safety domains. Not leaving crews getting to their planes unaccompanied ? Not sure the airport can afford the necessary staff... Ring an alarm if a gate is opened without being staffed ? This could lead to tons of wrong alarms, and the equipment cost could be quite high. Insist on security in crews / staff recurent training ? Probably a good solution...

Cockpit recording from TAM Airbus crashed in Sao Paulo Congonhas

The media have been buzzish over the last days, as a transcript from the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) from the TAM airbus 320 that did crash in Sao-Paulo Congonhas has been made public. Apparently it has been read to a congressional commision in Brasil, which from my point of view does not mean public...

Personally, I deeply regret it, for various reasons. At first, the source of this document is unclear. Is it officially released from the investigation team ? I don't think so, such teams tend to work very privately until the report is finalised.

Is it from "a source close to the investigators", as journalists often say when they get stolen information ? The source is not know yet, but the transcript is already published on several websites, with various comments, interpretations, and even some conclusions !

This is exactly the other bad thing I see in having such things published at this stage. This recording is only one piece of the huge set of information that will contribute to the investigations. One can not draw conclusions only on that.

Secondly, even experts will probably argue for months on the exact meaning and content of the recordings. Getting a proper understanding and conclusions on base of a simple transcript is certainly well beyond the capabilities of amateur bloggers (me included) and journalists.

So please, once again, leave the investigation team doing their job in peace. We will discuss later on, when the official report will become public. Anything in between is only speculations.

One important button...

Any modern airliner cockpit is full of buttons, even if the recent tendendy is to simplify them as possible. Each of this button has a special purpose, and some are more important than others, depending of the flight...

There is one however which I find particularly interesting, if not fun. As you know, pets travelling by air are flying in a special compartment, known as the "Animal Bay". This is a special cargo compartment, pressurized, with other particular equipment...


On the British Aerospace AvroLiner, also known as Jumbolino, the heating system of the animal bay is directly controlled from the cockpit, by a push button hidden behind the co-pilot's control colums (look at the inset on this picture).

Hopefully, the checklists are are making its use standard, otherwise airlines would regularly hand puppies back totally frozen, as the outsite air temperature at jet cruise altitude is typically in the -50°C range !

I will certainly later on publish a post on all the gadgets and gizmos found in a cockpit, but this one is so particular that it deserved its own post, don't you think so ?