Changi Airport raises security alert

SINGAPORE — The authorities here have raised the security alert at Changi Airport after Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 went missing, joining several airports in the region that have tightened their security procedures in recent weeks, even though it remains to be confirmed what happened during the final hours of the flight.

As a result of the step-up in security, some passengers departing from Changi Airport may be subjected to additional checks before boarding, even if the alarm is not triggered when they pass through the metal detectors at boarding gates.

Meanwhile, police officers will be carrying out increased patrols to project a stronger ground presence at the airport. There will also be increased supervisory checks on frontline officers.

The police also briefed airlines recently to stay vigilant by ensuring that cockpit doors remain secured in-flight, TODAY has learnt.

In a joint statement yesterday, the police and the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority of Singapore (ICA) said the decision to increase the security alert was a precautionary measure arising from the MH370 incident.

“The Police and the ICA have calibrated the security measures to (be) commensurate with the level of risk assessment,” said Airport Police Division Commander Sam Tee Chong Fui after reporters were briefed on the airport’s security infrastructure yesterday.

“These measures are reviewed from time to time, depending on the developments worldwide and also differ according to the information and intelligence we receive from our counterparts.”

Asked when was the last time the security alert at Changi was raised, the police would only say they work with their partners “to calibrate the security measures to (be) commensurate with the level of risk assessment when necessary”. They also declined to address queries on how the raising of the security alert compared with previous episodes.

Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Cambodia said they were either reviewing or tightening airport security procedures, after two Iranians were discovered to be using stolen passports to board the missing plane, which was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Vietnam, for instance, put its airports on the first level of a three-tier security alert system.

With about 147,000 passengers passing through Changi Airport daily, the police and the ICA yesterday laid out their “integrated approach to deter, prevent and detect any security threats and ensure aviation security”.

As part of the immigration clearance process, identity and document checks by ICA officers are cross-referenced with other databases, such as that of the International Criminal Police Organisation, or INTERPOL, the statement added. ICA officers are also trained to look out for suspicious or unusual behaviour, and suspicious travellers would be referred for further checks.

“While we have increased the security alert on the ground, we have also worked with the airport operators and the airlines to minimise the inconvenience to the travelling public,” Mr Tee said.

Separately, in response to TODAY’s queries about whether the Republic’s military radars had picked up MH370, Singapore’s Ministry of Defence said: “Singapore has informed Malaysia that it has no radar information on MH370.”

Some security experts had questioned whether Malaysia had alerted its neighbours about the missing plane and raised concerns that countries in the region might have been at risk of a terror attack, had the jetliner been hijacked.