Qantas Worried by Missile Threat

September 5, 2003

Australia's Government and the national airline Qantas are looking at ways to protect passenger planes from attacks by shoulder-fired missiles, officials said on Thursday.

Speaking on Australian national radio, Prime Minister John Howard said the threat of such attacks was probably greater than that of hijacking.

He said that Qantas, in co-operation with the government, was considering installing a system which would provide a decoy to foil approaching rockets.

"They have the effect of sending the missile off-course so it doesn't hit you," Mr Howard said, at the start of a parliamentary inquiry into aviation security.

But the prime minister added that such measures were often expensive, and more analysis was needed before any decision was made on whether to apply them to commercial flights.

Missile counter-measures are already fitted to military aircraft and helicopters in many areas of the world, and Israel is soon to install built-in protection systems on its passenger planes as well.

Andrew Tongue, head of Australia's transport security agency, told the parliament hearing that his group was evaluating the threat of surface-to-air missiles, together with help from the American intelligence agencies.

"The... question is, does al-Qaeda, Jemaah Islamiah, their associates, have the intent to get these weapons?" he said.

But he also said it was important to assess the capabilities of the people who might want to launch such surface-to-air missiles.

"In the most recent recorded example of somebody trying to use these weapons... they failed because they didn't use the weapon properly, which is an indicator that training may not be as up-to-date as some are predicting," Mr Tongue said.

He was referring to last year's failed terrorist attempt to shoot down a packed Israeli airliner in Kenya, using a lightweight rocket launcher.

Mr Howard emphasised that the threat of surface-to-air missile attacks must be kept in perspective.

"We live in a world where these things are threats we didn't dream of a few years ago, but we have also got to get on with our lives and not become neurotic about it," he said.

Weapons experts say hundreds of heat-seeking rockets capable of hitting low-flying aircraft are available on the worldwide arms market, for as little as several thousand dollars.

The Government launched its review of aviation security last month, following a series of security incidents on domestic flights.

In one incident in May, a man armed with wooden stakes tried to hijack and crash a Qantas plane.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3080036.stm