Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Wanna-Ben TV crew risk travel ban. Fake pilot stunt - New Zealand.

The six men arrested and charged over a television stunt attempting to get a fake pilot into a secure area at Auckland International Airport may face difficulty passing immigration when travelling overseas, an expert claims.

And TV3, the station that screens the Wanna-Ben show which the incident was staged for, is yet to decide if it will run the contentious footage.

''It hasn't been ruled out, but it's extremely unlikely,'' spokeswoman Rachel Lorimer said.

Aviation Industry of New Zealand chief executive Irene King says the accused men, who include TV3 presenter Ben Boyce, could be banned from entering countries like Australia and the US if convicted under the Civil Aviation Act.

''If they are travelling to places like Australia and the US they should think how a conviction under the Act would look because [those countries] have much greater risk surveillance,'' she said.

''I would say both those countries would look sideways and be pretty enquiring.''

International airlines have watchlists that record passengers who may pose a security threat, King said.

Domestic airlines in New Zealand don't have them because privacy legislation prevents carriers from exchanging information.

King says airlines mitigate that by having ''airline personnel trained in risk training and may deny a passenger entry if they suspect within reason they are behaving suspiciously''.

''In this case, he [the fake pilot] was not wearing a security card and staff would have thought that was unusual as it is drilled into them to have it prominently displayed,'' she said.

King was unsure if the accused men could be banned from airlines for impersonating a pilot.

"We have not had such a dopey scenario that I'm aware of. What they did was absolute stupidity," she said.

Boyce along with The Rock radio host Bryce Casey and TV producer Andrew Robinson, were all bailed after appearing in the Manukau District Court on Monday charged with giving false details in an attempt to enter a secure area at the airport.

Another three men, aged 24, 27 and 40 appeared in the court on a similar charge yesterday and were given interim name suppression and bailed to reappear, along with the other accused, later next month.

Aviation Security Service general manager Mark Everitt said he could not comment on the case while it was before the courts but said the incident would be addressed by airlines and security services.

"Whether they (the accused) went onto some sort of watch list... We haven't discussed that yet."

Security staff dealt with about six episodes a month of passengers joking about having bombs or guns in their luggage, Everitt said.

Each was treated as a genuine threat and carried significant financial cost with planes being grounded, bags unloaded and bomb sniffer dogs being used.

Aviation security also deals with around six passengers a month who were causing trouble by being intoxicated, smoking in flight, or not obeying airline staff.

"We will talk to the airlines about the appropriateness of that behaviour and whether they should travel again.''

People can be trespassed from Auckland Airport but each airline was responsible for monitoring its own passengers, Everitt said.

Airport police spokeswoman Inspector Denise Trail said it was the responsibility of airport operators to trespass people, while police simply enforced those orders.

An Air New Zealand spokeswoman refused to say whether they had a list of banned passengers for security reasons.

The airline's operations and safety general manager Captain David Morgan said staff observed passenger behaviour at check-in, in the departure area and during boarding.

"If a passenger's behaviour is causing concern, they can in some circumstances be denied boarding. This is done in consultation and with the permission of the captain."

Disobeying crew on board a flight was an offence under the Civil Aviation Act and in extreme cases, crew could restrain unruly passengers.

- Auckland Now

http://www.stuff.co.nz

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