Saturday, September 17, 2011

Flight plans not treated as top secret. (Japan)

The flight plans for U.S. presidential aircraft Air Force One and U.S. military jets have not been handled as top secret by the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry, it has been revealed.

The finding surfaced following a recent scandal in which an air traffic controller at Haneda Airport posted on his blog images of Air Force One's flight plan for U.S. President Barack Obama's visit last November.

The ministry is discussing whether to upgrade flight plans for foreign government aircraft to top secret status.

According to the ministry, information it handles is categorized from Level 1 to Level 3, depending on the degree of confidentiality.

Flight plans for foreign government aircraft are currently classified as Level 2, or closed to the public in principle. Information related to national security is classified as Level 3, or top secret, and handled very strictly.

Some ministry officials suggest flight plans for foreign government aircraft should be handled as strictly as Level 3 information.

However, pointing out that flight plans are communicated between aircraft operators and air traffic controllers via radio, others maintain that treating these plans as classified information at all times is not reasonable.

Meanwhile, an experts panel to discuss measures to improve the existing air traffic control system publicized on Friday the results of a survey conducted by the ministry early this month on air traffic controllers.

The survey, taken by 571 air traffic controllers, showed a combined 43 percent of them either "greatly feel" or "sometimes feel" that their organizations' discipline has become lax.
(Sep. 18, 2011)

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp

No comments:

Post a Comment