8 Quotes by Taib Ahmed ICAO AVSEC PM

Corruption ? Yes there is corruption in Civil Aviation Authorties and a lot of it is unspoken. For, starters, what do you call, issuing an airport pass to a royal house help, or a Ministers son with zero duties at the airport other than meeting his girlfriend on arrival ?

When it comes to oversight, especially at the airport operational level, I am skeptical of Civil Aviation as a Civilian entity without a constitutional mandate at that, regulating uniformed Ministry of Interior agents (read Airport Police), who technically own the security component being regulated.

Airport Police Screeners are duty bound to remain vigilant whilst on duty, conduct random surveillance/screening of arriving and departing passengers (and their baggage) for personswho may pose a threat to civil aviation; How is this possible when most of them in some Middle East Countries for instance, are Smartphone addicts, who can be seen busy on them, whilst at post ?

Trying to explain aviation security needs to a political appointee of a boss, who is scared of being seeing as rocking the boat from within. Is tantamount to trying to sing to, and or teach music to a goat.One ends up doing two things-:1. Wasting time, and,2. Annoying the goat.

Where security is concerned, we need to change the reactive approach the aviation industry has been known to have for the last 74 years since the birth of ICAO in 1944.We must stop rushing to close the barn door, after the horse already bolted. And become a proactive risk driven industry, only then will we stop being caught with our pants down.

There is nothing wrong with being God fearing and all spiritual, but where putting proper aviation security measures in place is concerned. 'In Shaa Allah'' (God Willing) it will not happen to us, is not an adequate measure, nor an SOP.It only works after you have put the measures in place and have a robust working quality control system.

Nationalization of AVSEC is quite okay and in order, but before embarking on it, the authorities professing it, must try to fit the Nationals to job, as opposed to trying to fit the job to the Nationals. Most Nationals simply don't have what it takes, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

When Albert Einstein said '' We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them'', I believe he had Arab Civil Aviation Authorities in mind. Their mentality and bootlickers populating most of them are the main problem and thus practical change for the better is virtually impossible.