Next week will market the second anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the US. Nevertheless, Israel's international carriers - El Al (TASE:ELAL), Arkia Airlines, and Israir - have not yet completed the installation of armored doors in their planes.
Sources inform “Globes” that the General Security Services (GSS), responsible for Israeli aviation security in Israel and overseas, recently ordered the carriers' CEOs to complete the installation by January 1, 2004. The cost of the installation is several million shekels, at a cost of NIS 30,000 per door.
El Al CEO Amos Shapira told "Globes" that the airline had installed armored doors on all its planes, except for two Boeing 747-200 cargo planes. The GSS has ordered improved security equipment be installed on these planes as well, since they can be converted to passengers. El Al converts the planes to passengers during peak seasons.
Arkia president and CEO Prof. Israel (Izzy) Borovich confirmed that he had received the GSS order. Arkia will have to buy the doors for its seven planes: three Boeing jets and four ATR Aircraft ATR-42 turboprops.
Israeli security sources know that terrorist organizations, including Hizbullah and el-Qaida, have made Israeli civil aviation a top target. An Australian university recently claimed that El Al is one of most threatened airlines, along with British Airways and US carriers.
The attempt to shoot down an Arkia airliner with shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles in Mombasa, Kenya, in November 2002, proved that the security establishment's concerns were justified. These concerns intensified two weeks ago following the uncovering of an attempt to smuggle Russian shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles into the US. The missiles were to be used to attack an airliner.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on September 3, 2003