Aircraft Fly Where Terrorists Are Active

Israel's El Al Airlines will soon install a variant of the military-spec Flight Guard anti-missile system on six airliners that fly routes where the Al-Qaida terror network is active.

The $1 million-per-plane systems, which are designed to automatically launch flares to obstruct and divert an incoming ground-launched missile from the airliner, will be installed within the next several days, according to Transportation Ministry project director Yitzhak Raz.

The system has been approved by the Israel Civil Aviation Authority (ICAA) Thursday for installation of Boeing 767 jets (above), following several tests flights required for certification, according to Israel's Globes business journal.

The approval certificate was presented at the Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) facility at Ben Gurion airport. IAI's Elta Systems Group co-developed the civilian system with Israel Military Industries, Ltd.

The Israeli cabinet decided to allow the systems to be installed on Israel passenger aircraft following a 2002 attack on an Arkia airliner in Kenya. Militants fired two shoulder-launched missiles at the aircraft -- which narrowly missed.

Flight Guard systems are currently installed in over 200 aircraft in 15 countries. While the systems are almost exclusively mounted to military jets, some executive jets also have the systems onboard, according to the company.

The security measures are nothing new for the Israeli carrier, which has been at the forefront of airline security since its founding in 1948 -- because it had to be. El Al aircraft had bulletproof cockpit doors and armed air marshalls (at least two on every flight) long before 9/11.

Also, if a passenger fails to pass any one of several security checks and interviews on their way from the terminal to the gate, according to a CNN study, they are not allowed on the aircraft. Analysts from such agencies as Interpol and Scotland Yard screen passengers based on information fed to them by El Al security teams at the airport.

El Al will decide which six airliners to mount the anti-missile system on based on intelligence reports on destinations believed to hold active Al-Qaida cells.

FMI: www.elal.co.il, www.elta-iai.com