LAST YEAR, a major airline threatened to pull some of its flights from Jamaica if airport authorities failed to reduce the volume of drugs getting on to its aircraft while they were parked at the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay.

This and other damning information about security inadequacies and breaches at Jamaica's two international airports was contained in a Ministry of National Security and Ministry of Transport and Works report, completed on August 27, 2008.

A 13-member team, led by senior security officials from the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority (JCAA), the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), the national security ministry, the Board of Airline Representatives of Jamaica (BARJ), and immigration and customs officials conducted the detailed audit.

Security audits are conducted at both international airports as a matter of course by the JCAA, but this multi-agency probe was spawned by complaints made to Prime Minister Bruce Golding last year by the BARJ - the body that represents all airlines and handling companies that operate on the island.

Members of the BARJ arraigned the airport operators when they told the prime minister that for a period of three to four months in 2008, there had been an increase in the incidents of drugs getting on their aircraft.

BARJ president Tomlin Scarlett said during the period, the airlines had to fork out millions of dollars in fines because countries, such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, had imposed fines on carriers for narcotics found on the aircraft or in unclaimed baggage.

fines proportionate to drugs

The fines are proportionate to the amount of drugs found on-board the plane.

"Some had received substantial fines, and one major carrier was contemplating reducing flights to the island if its planes could not be secured while at the airport in Montego Bay," a section of the the executive summary of the report revealed.

Scarlett said the airline was not posturing and was very serious about pulling the flights if the situation was not remedied.

The BARJ believed that the airport operators were not doing enough to stop the flow of illegal drugs, but the investigating team concluded that the airlines and their employees were also to blame for the narcotics breaches.

"To suggest now that the fault of drugs getting on their aircraft is strictly because they (the airlines) no longer have control over the screening of their hold bags, is not 100 per cent true.

"A major part of the problem is collusion at the airport, which includes possibly their ticketing staff, possibly their contracted baggage or ramp handlers, or even their contracted security staff," the report outlined.

new system

The BARJ also complained that a new centralised hold baggage screening system, which was still in 'test mode' at the time, did not look for drugs and was contributing to drugs getting on their aircraft.

The report noted that the responsibility for screening bags had been removed from the airlines and placed with the Government through the airport operators.

According to the report, the airport operators started to test the new hold baggage screening system on July 1, 2008, and that did not correspond with the escalation in narcotics breaches, which started from as early as March-April 2008.

"During the period in question, March to June 2008, the carriers were fully responsible for screening and protecting their own hold bags," the report read.

The JCAA on Friday told The Sunday Gleaner that the airport operators had already begun to implement a number of corrective measures.

tyrone.reid@gleanerjm.com