Air New Zealand pilots can now keep an eye on the cabin

17 July, 2007:

New Zealand is sparing no efforts to ensure security of air travel. All aircraft of Air New Zealand are being fitted with security cameras so that pilots can keep an eye on the cabin.

The new security system is meant to prevent potential hijacking threats by terrorists and also act as evidence in cases of air rage.

At present, pilots are protected by a door chime and a spy-hole in the flight-deck door through which they can identify a person attempting to gain access.

Mark Rammell, president of Airline Pilots Association, described the security cameras as the “the way of the future” because the protocol on leaving the flight deck had changed in the past few years.

He added: “Pilots used to go back into the cabin and see what was going on. But, since 9/11, we are up there and that’s it. They keep us segregated. It’s a little bit taboo to go down the back of the airplane.”

According to Paul Lyons, aviation security co-ordinator of the Pilots Association, said he is given to understand that Air New Zealand’s Boeing 777 fleet already had the technology and that most new planes were now coming with it as standard issue, despite the United States’ Federal Aviation Administration not making it compulsory.

A recent meeting of New Zealand Parliament’s select committee on Aviation Security Legislation Bill also decided not to legislate for the cameras, as the 1990 Civil Aviation Act already had jurisdiction to require them. Air New Zealand submitted to the committee that all its planes on order would have the cameras and that it was considering the business case for retrofitting its Boeing 747-200 and 767-300 aircraft.

There are a variety of camera systems, Paul Lyons said, that ranged from a single camera monitoring the flight-deck door to a number of cameras that covered and recorded the entire cabin.

The cameras would fulfill two main objectives – surveillance and evidence – though they would be fixed to give only an overall impression of the cabin.

The security cameras would not distract the pilots as the cameras would be switched on only when necessary.