Airline passenger conversations to be monitored under EU project

Airline
passengers could have their conversations and movements monitored under
a European Union project aimed at tackling terrorism.


[telegraph.co.uk] Brussels is funding research at Reading University aimed at detecting suspicious behaviour on board aircraft.

It uses a combination of cameras, microphones, explosives detectors and
a sophisticated computer system which would give a pilot early warning
of any danger.

But the work has alarmed civil liberties campaigners who fear the growth of the surveillance state.

At present intelligent CCTV systems which monitor and analyse
passenger behaviour using computer software are used in a number of
airports across the world, including at Hong Kong and Washington DC.
They are designed to pick up unusual or suspicious behaviour, such as a
bag being abandoned.

Currently security on airplanes is mainly limited to a CCTV camera located by the cockpit.

But under the new system microphones would be installed and passenger
conversations listened to for the first time. Suspect words and phrases
would alert a monitoring system.

Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, said: "Audio
airline surveillance is the line that must never be crossed in a high
security environment. Passengers must already face intolerable
intrusions and restrictions on their movements. The day the airlines
install hidden microphones on planes is the day that all trust in the
airlines is destroyed."

But the research also alarmed Gus Hosein a lecturer at the
London School of Economics. "This is getting out of control. An
airplane is not a privacy free zone."

The Reading team, headed by James Ferryman, have already
conducted trials of the camera system on a British Aerospace plane and
the computer system on a mock Airbus.

"What we are doing is extending technology which is already
used at airports and railway stations and placing it on an aircraft,"
Dr Ferryman said.

Cameras dotted around an aircraft would look out for the
abnormal, such as several passengers entering a lavatory at the same
time or individuals seeming agitated.

One option would be to allocate some seats to passengers whose
behaviour has already raised concern at the airport, so they could be
monitored on board.

Microphones would eavesdrop for anything which could suggest
terrorist behaviour. Inside the lavatories explosives sniffers would
detect if a bomb was being assembled.

All this information would be analysed by computer and if it
spotted something untoward, the flight deck would be told instantly.

The key to the work is developing software which can spot a
genuine threat. "We want to avoid saying that nervous passengers are
potential terrorists," said Dr Ferryman.

According to researchers this technology would have thwarted
the "underpants bomber" who tried to detonate an explosion on a
Christmas Day flight to Detroit.

"It is known that the terrorist was acting nervously in the
airport prior to boarding – this could have been picked up with the
same automated CCTV technology – and that they spent time in the
lavatory assembling the components of the explosive," Dr Ferryman
added.

Money for the research has come from the EU Security of
Aircraft in the Future European Environment (SAFEE) project. But the
aviation industry would be expected to pay for its deployment.

The cost would inevitably be passed on to the passenger, but
Dr Ferryman believes they would accept a small charge to thwart a
terrorist threat.

"If I had to pay an extra £5 on an airline ticket and it would
go towards s system which would make me safer, I would be happy to do
it.

Lord West, the government’s security minister, said: "The use
of behavioural science offers us a lot of opportunities in countering
terrorism and the work going on at Reading will help with this. This
sort of technology is an incredibly valuable tool.

"We are encouraging the world of social and behavioural
science to share their ideas and expertise with us to do this. Academia
and industry may be able to provide invaluable assistance and advice in
helping to prevent terrorist attacks."

A Department for Transport spokesman added: "We have no plans to instruct airlines to install this system on their planes."

A spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority added: "Since we
are mainly concerned with safety we would want to be reassured that
these cameras and microphones would not interfere with the running of
the plane."

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/david-millward/