Cameras to boost Malaysia aircraft security
Malaysia has ordered its airport authority to introduce closed-circuit television cameras to bolster security around parked aircraft and conduct strict pre-flight checks.
The order follows the discovery of snapped steering cables in a number of planes that investigators believe may have been cut by vandals, reports said on Sunday.
Transport Minister Chan Kong Choy said all planes at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, located south of the capital, would come under camera surveillance.
“Each and every plane has to be checked thoroughly before take-off,” he told The Sunday Star newspaper.
National carrier Malaysia Airlines and the police are investigating whether the latest malfunction in a Boeing 777 plane was an accident or an act of vandalism.
|
“Each and every plane has to be checked thoroughly before take-off” Chan Kong Choy, |
Engineers on Wednesday found a cable allowing pilots to turn the plane on the ground snapped, before the Bombay-bound jet was to take off with 280 passengers.
The incident comes just weeks after several wires on a Malaysia Airlines passenger plane bound for Australia were found to have been cut shortly before take-off.
Three of the airline’s staff were arrested and later released over what a spokesman described as an act of vandalism, not sabotage.
Chan said on Friday the government was concerned and had
ordered an investigation into the latest incident.