NEW DELHI – The theft of personal belongings on board planes is a growing problem in some parts of the world, and the global trade body for airlines plans to hold discussions on how to deal with this in the coming weeks.
Mr Nick Careen, senior vice-president for operations, safety and security at the International Air Transport Association (Iata), said feedback from its members indicate that in-flight theft has become more of an issue on certain routes in the past 12 to 18 months.
This is in line with the recovery in international air travel post-pandemic.
“Our security advisory group is planning to meet in the next week or two to discuss what we could potentially do to better manage this – out of China mostly, where it seems to be very organised,” he told the media on June 3.
Speaking at Iata’s annual general meeting in New Delhi, India, Mr Careen also delved into other aviation safety issues, including turbulence, gaps in accident reporting, and GPS jamming and spoofing near conflict areas.
He said: “We’re still the safest mode of transportation… However, we never rest on our laurels in aviation. There are headwinds. There are things that we need to keep an eye on.”
On in-flight theft, Mr Careen said he did not want to point fingers, but the concern is the degree of organisation in recent cases.
“How we deal with that, whether it’s security on board or cooperation from local governments in terms of the appropriate penalties… those are the types of things that we will see come out of this,” he added.
There has been a growing number of theft cases reported on board flights to a number of cities in Asia. In the first 10 months of 2024, Hong Kong recorded 169 such cases, involving HK$4.32 million (S$709,300) worth of valuables – 75 per cent higher than for the same period in 2023.
Tokyo’s Narita International Airport also reported a recent spike in in-flight thefts.
In Singapore, four people were charged over in-flight theft between January 2023 and September 2024, CNA reported in January.
Most recently, Chinese national Zhang Kun, 51, pleaded guilty in May to stealing a credit card and more than $200 in cash from a fellow passenger on an overnight Scoot flight from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore in March.
Another issue Mr Careen addressed at the Iata meeting was the recent changes made by some airlines to the rules on the use of power banks on flights.
This was in the wake of a number of aircraft fires, most notably the blaze in January that destroyed an Air Busan plane in South Korea.
In April, Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Scoot banned the use and charging of power banks on their flights, as did carriers in South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia and Hong Kong.
In May, Southwest Airlines in the US also tightened its rules on portable battery use.
Mr Careen said there is nothing wrong with airlines adjusting their procedures based on their own safety risk assessments.
But Iata has not seen a rampant increase in fires on board planes, and he warned against knee-jerk reactions.
Airline procedures should ultimately be standardised, Mr Careen added, and any changes should be made via a regulatory review by the International Civil Aviation Organisation, which is discussing the issue.
Mr Careen also addressed concerns over turbulence, which he said is the leading cause of accidents on board aircraft. This is one area where Iata is using data to improve safety, he noted.
Today, 28 airlines, including SIA and Scoot, exchange real-time turbulence information using Iata’s Turbulence Aware platform, sharing reports from more than 2,700 aircraft.
This is up from 25 carriers six months ago, and Taiwanese carrier Eva Air on June 2 said that it will be joining the platform as well.
Asked if the data-sharing has led to more flights avoiding choppy air, Mr Careen said Iata has not been tracking this. While the association should do so, this would also be hard to measure, he noted.
Mr Careen said there has been a rise in turbulence incidents, but this has primarily been due to increased reporting. Referencing SIA’s Flight SQ321, which hit severe turbulence in May 2024 that led to a passenger dying of a suspected heart attack, he said such sensational incidents have exacerbated the focus on this topic.
It is too early to draw conclusions about the impact of climate change on turbulence incidents, he added.
Mr Careen on June 3 also called on governments to improve their accident reporting.
“The standards are clear. Thirty days after, you’re required to provide a preliminary report. And 12 months later, you should have the report completed. That does not happen consistently,” he said.
Mr Careen said there are still 107 investigations from the period between 2018 and 2023 that remain incomplete, noting that 234 lives were lost in these accidents.
Calling this a “dereliction of duty”, Mr Careen added: “You can’t prevent the next (accident) from happening without understanding what happened in the first place.”
The politicisation of investigations is an issue, as are labour and technical snags. “We’re willing to accept the good reasons. When we don’t get a reason, that’s when there’s a problem,” he said.
According to Iata, there were 1.13 accidents per million flights in 2024 – lower than the five-year average of 1.25. The number of on-board deaths rose sharply to 244 from 72 in 2023, but the fatality risk in 2024 of 0.06 was still lower than the five-year average of 0.1.
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