Security Screening and the Engineer's Access
You are working a night shift in a maintenance hangar inside the airside area of a small regional airport. At 02:00 you need to retrieve a component from the bonded store, which is on the landside of the terminal. To get there you must pass through a staff door that is controlled by a card reader. Your access card has expired - it lapsed three days ago and the renewal has not been processed. A colleague offers to lend you his card, which is valid and has airside access. The terminal is closed to the public, but a cleaner is working in the landside corridor. The airport's security programme is approved under the AVSEC regulations, and the Civil Aviation Act 2017 gives the regulator power to enforce security requirements.
1. Should you accept the colleague's card? Explain with reference to AVSEC principles.
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No. Access control is a core AVSEC measure, and a card is issued to a named individual precisely so that access can be attributed and audited. Using another person's card defeats attribution, breaches the airport's approved security programme, and is a reportable security event. The fact that the terminal is closed to the public does not help: the landside/airside boundary is a controlled boundary regardless of whether passengers are present, and an unattributed crossing of it is exactly what the programme exists to prevent. The cleaner's presence also means the landside area is not sterile. The correct action is to report the expired card and follow the airport's procedure for escorted or temporary access.
2. What is the lawful way to complete your task that night?
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Contact the airport security duty officer or the hangar supervisor and request an escorted access or a temporary access authorisation under the programme's procedures. If an escort is required, use it and record the movement. Report the expired card so renewal is expedited. If no lawful access can be arranged, defer retrieval of the component to the day shift; a component that is not needed for an immediate release can wait. Do not improvise a workaround.
3. The colleague says 'everyone does it, it's a small airport'. How do you respond, and what follow-up is appropriate?
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Culture is not a defence. A practice that is common but non-compliant is still a breach, and small airports are not exempt from AVSEC requirements. The appropriate response is to decline, complete the task lawfully, and raise the card-sharing practice through the security reporting channel - ideally a voluntary or confidential report so the systemic issue (slow card renewal) is fixed rather than just the individual case. If card renewal routinely takes longer than the card's validity, that is a programme deficiency the airport operator needs to correct.