Complacency, incompetence and excessive reliance on technology are some of the reasons for the growing security threat in the global aviation industry, including Nigeria.

These were the views of aviation experts yesterday at the Nigeria AVSEC 2025 Workshop & Exercise with the theme: ‘Airport & Airspace Security: Functions of National Security’,’ held at the Lagos airport by Centurion Aviation Security & Safety Management in partnership with Green Light.

Presenters at the five-day event observed that various technological developments were threats to continuous aviation safety and called on governments to tame the threats through continuous risk assessments, inter-agency collaboration and training.

Speaking at the event in his presentation, ‘Emerging Trend in Airport Security: International Perspective,’ the Managing Director of Green Light Ltd, Mr. Philip Baum, said that many of the industry’s security personnel had developed complacency towards aviation security issues due to their familiarity with the environment.

Baum also said that their failure to periodically test competence, silo mentality and failure to implement measures against attacks were some of the disturbing trends affecting continuous safety in the industry. He said: “It’s not just about the passengers on that flight; it’s about protecting your country. We don’t really test people properly. Internationally, we have the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and government audits.”

Also, a retired Major of the Bangladesh Army, Saiful Islam, in his paper, identified hijacks, attacks on airport and aircraft locations and sabotage as some of the acts of terrorism.

Islam further explained that the lack of appropriate communication, assertiveness, awareness, digital distraction, absence of teamwork, fatigue, insufficient resources, pressure, stress and norms propelled terrorism rise in the global aviation industry.

To change the growing trend, he advocated training, retraining, motivation, uniformity among agencies and organizations and strict adherence to aviation security rules.

Besides, Aviation Security (AVSEC) expert with the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Stephen Ukaegbu, in his contributions, regretted that the various security agencies posted to the airports, had different mandates in contradiction to aviation industry standards.

To avoid the bottlenecks, he called for cooperation and central command among the security agencies. The Managing Director of Centurion Aviation Security, Group Capt. John Ojikutu (retd), stressed the need for uniformity in the discharge of the various security agencies, saying the lack of cooperation opened the sector to threat. (The Guardian)