Caution vs. Expediency
The 9/11 Bill, signed into law on August 3, 2007, called for the TSA to be able to screen 100 percent of air cargo on passenger flights for explosives by August 2010. But while the TSA has met that goal for passenger flights originating in the United States, TSA has not been able to meet that deadline for inbound international passenger flights, which carry about 6 billion pounds of cargo a year, according to the International Air Cargo Association. Failure to meet the deadline is due, in part, to the fact that TSA has to balance caution with the expediency that U.S. businesses are looking for as they claw out of the economic downturn.
But problems with what’s inside that cargo are far more complex than looking for some errant C4. Earlier this year, authorities were investigating the transfer of cocaine and cash between recording studios in Los Angeles and New York. Rock-It Cargo and Interscope Records both denied any involvement in, or knowledge of, the exchange, and both were also reported to be cooperating fully with the efforts to prosecute those sending and receiving the drugs.
Rock-It Cargo declined to discuss the matter, but a conversation with Brandon Fried, the executive director of the Air Forwarders Association in Washington, D.C., told PLSN that, regarding air transportation in general, the Federal security focus has been on passenger aircraft and the safety of those passengers, and that the screening of cargo hold contents is focused on explosives, not contraband.
“The all-cargo side of the shipping business is focused on keeping the ‘man out of the box,’” added Fried, a reference to shipping people in containers as part of human smuggling rings.
Seizure and Forfeiture
Entertainment equipment for music and other types of tours, however, can be transported via either route, depending upon cost, itinerary and dozens of other factors. Contraband of various types — narcotics, cash, precious metals — can find their way into all of these silos at any time, and with potentially disastrous results: Federal drug laws provide severe seizure and forfeiture penalties for items and conveyances deemed to have been used in the interstate transportation of narcotics and cash derived from the sale and transportation of narcotics. Not every freight case seized in this way necessarily winds up being auctioned off to help pay for local law enforcement (the usual way auction sales money is distributed back to the community), but the legal costs and headaches of proving that your road case is the victim of circumstance will be substantial.
Fried says shippers’ ability to monitor flight cases and other cargo in transit has been greatly improved since 9/11. In addition to the passive bar coding that gets scanned at various checkpoints along a route, more shippers are offering RFID tags, which are active electronics that tell monitoring devices where they are at any given time.
“More cargo shippers are offering that as an option now,” added Fried. But he adds that RFID still can’t transmit in flight. “And if someone wants to hide contraband in that container, the RFID tag isn’t going to detect that. It will just help you find the container faster and more accurately [on the ground].”
The solution to this issue is the establishment of protocols on the part of the customers — specifically those responsible for the logistics of touring — that create a chain of custody that’s as airtight as possible.
Charter Carriers
Airborne security and safety have another potential weak link, said Carol Leone, marketing head at Air Fax, an air charter broker. Leone cited several tours that have chosen charter operators whose aircraft are certified for FAA Part 125 regulations, which cover commercial aircraft that seat over 20 passengers and carry over 6,000 pounds of cargo freight, but do not meet the stricter FAA Part 121 regulations, which address specific pilot certifications and aircraft maintenance levels. Leone, whose company has procured charter air transport for Aerosmith, Paul McCartney and other acts currently out on tour, said the DOT has fined at least two dozen carriers for illegal charter operations over the years, but that the problem continues.
Artists are “choosing [improperly certified] charter carriers on the basis of economics, on cost,” she noted.
While no fatalities have ever occurred as a result of this type of situation, Leone did cite the time that a Boeing 707 carrying Bon Jovi ran off a runway in Hamilton, Ontario in 2005. (Boeing 707s have been around for decades — the first ones were built in 1958, and the last one rolled off the assembly line in 1979). Leone also asserted that some of these charter companies purposely obscure tail numbers of aircraft in databases that would let potential customers or their brokers check the maintenance and accident histories of the airplanes.
Leone, a pilot herself, is a one-person crusader on the topic. And her plan is to lobby for improved compliance on the part of charter operators currently flying under FAA Part 125 to be certified under the more stringent Part 121 if they plan to offer contract charter. “Not to put them out of business [but] to protect the consumer and also the airlines [that are certified for] Part 121 at much higher costs,” she emphasizes. “This certification requires more experienced pilots; more stringent training, maintenance and operating procedures; and protection of customer funds and their contract rights.”
Taking Responsibility
The bottom line is that those controlling the logistics of national and international touring need to act more like consumers, taking responsibility for what they give to shippers by creating a valid chain of custody that’s well vetted and documented up to the moment it leaves your hands, and drilling down deeper into the operational histories of service providers like charter aircraft providers. A spate of fatal bus accidents in the Northeast corridor, where scheduled and charter bus services have mushroomed in the last two years, illustrates what happens when a transportation market quickly becomes crowded and highly competitive against a background of economic pressure. It’s a different world out there now, and this is just one more set of circumstances that need to be included in the agenda.
