By Anessa Cohen

Airport security is not typically a subject I write about, but given this past week’s Egyptian Airlines crash, I felt that it warranted open discussion now.

Although all evidence at this time points to some kind of bomb planted on the plane causing its demise, there has been no official determination that the plane was actually sabotaged and, if so, where and how it was done.

Regardless of the final conclusion about the cause of this plane crash, airport-security directors all over the world are now scrambling to check the soundness of their security operations to see if any breaches might exist that would put the populace in those areas at risk.

To my disgust, I have listened all week to media reports and security specialists, whom we have trusted to protect us from terrorist threats, discuss the many breaches that exist in Europe and in America–places in which one would think we would not have to worry about airport safety. There is terrible laxity by the airlines in their efforts to create safe and secure plane flights, as well as safe and secure security screening, to protect passengers from possible terrorists.

It seems to be the consensus by all interviewees that saving a dollar has become more important than making sure people are safe when they fly! Right after the crash of the Egyptian Airlines plane, suddenly information was released that 85 people working security at the airport in Paris were removed from their positions due to radicalism. Why were these people hired to begin with? And what kind of screening, if any, was used when hiring them?

Now we hear that rather than having Homeland Security vetting the passengers and airline staff at the airports here in the United States, the job was first outsourced to private contractors that could take care of screening for cheaper, thereby saving the airlines money. Those private contractors then subcontracted the job out to another contractor that hires new immigrants to screen passengers, because they are even cheaper and save the airlines even more money.

Is this for real? Why isn’t everyone calling their elected officials and screaming about the fraud of not having trained security guards screening airport workers as well as passengers to protect the innocent? It is an outrage that this is happening here in the United States after what we all went through on 9/11 and beyond.

I recently had to travel through Europe on my way to Israel, something I try never to do since I do not like stepping foot in Europe. At the time, I landed in Heathrow Airport in London, figuring that their security should be tight and I would not have any misgivings about the level of security there.

To my surprise at the time, when I went through the security check in that airport on the way to transfer to my flight to Israel, the majority of security screeners were Arab or Muslim; the woman checking passports was wearing a hijab, and some of the suitcase screeners were also women in hijabs, and there were Arab men doing the screening as well. Perhaps some would say I was being prejudiced, but the terrorism we are facing around the world presently is all Muslim and mostly Arab, so forgive me if I do not feel warm and fuzzy with Arab security screeners supposedly protecting my safety!

We have all made adjustments for the extra time and effort that we have to add to our travel time, cooperating with security screenings, and we do this to keep ourselves and our families safe and secure. If the airlines and our government officials feel that they can pretend to screen us with non-professionals so they can spend minimum wage on screeners, what message are they sending us? And why are we letting them get away with this?

Please take the time to either e‑mail or call all your representatives and pressure them to take action to make sure our security is being handled by qualified security specialists–not people who would otherwise be flipping burgers at a fast-food place. This is not acceptable behavior on the part of our elected representatives and government officials. v

Anessa Cohen lives in Cedarhurst and is a licensed real-estate broker and a licensed N.Y.S. mortgage broker with over 20 years of experience, offering full-service residential and commercial real-estate services (Anessa V Cohen Realty) and mortgaging services (FM Home Loans) in the Five Towns and throughout the tri-state area. She can be reached at 516-569-5007 or via her website, www.AVCrealty.com. Readers are encouraged to send questions or comments to anessa@AVCrealty.com.

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