By akademiotoelektronik, 23/03/2023
Toulouse.Airport: behind the scenes of safety
In an ultra-secure microcosm, the Air Transport Gendarmerie (CGTA) has agreed to make us pass the portico.Report at Toulouse-Blagnac airport, from another angle.
All smiles, Annick arrives as every day at the road access post with inspection and filtering of staff (BERIF) of Toulouse-Blagnac airport.Like all 7,000 site employees, she badges and passes her handbag to the scan in front of the ICTS security guards.As often, the soldiers of the Air Transport Gendarmerie (GTA) participate in this improvised control.These are the guarantors of security and the safety of the tracks, from the recording via the interior of the aircraft.They have authority to exercise everywhere on these land controlled by the air and borders (PAF) police (PAF).And the synergy between the police is not an in vain in Blagnac."We are no longer at all in barriers' guard missions as before, immediately warns squadron chief Hervé Marie, commander of the company of Occitania.We control in particular the work of security agents.»»»»
Si la GTA peut gérer les vols de bagages - «90 % sont commis dans des aéroports étrangers »»»» - ou la validité de titres de transport, la majorité de ses missions relèvent de l'opérationnel, du judiciaire. «Les passagers ne nous voient pas forcément mais notre travail, c'est leur sécurité»»»», sourit Annabelle Rufino, inspecteur de fret, en pleine zone d'évolution contrôlée des avions.
In permanent connection with the Office of Investigations and Analysis (BEA) and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC), the soldiers also intervene on planes, ULM, paragliding crashes, moreover, at the Toulouse-Blagnac brigade, a black box not quite like the others is exposed.Not like a trophy but as a training medium."It is that of the Crash of A 330 in 1994. Sept morts»»»», déplore le patron des lieux, le lieutenant Matthieu Morel.But her men perform a nebula of spots that are not all required for this kind of Rarissila gendarmerie events in air transport.Monitoring of the sky and the drones that swarm there also occupies them.Between the nuclear power plants or the remanding houses overflown more and more often, there is no shortage of missions.They are carried out in relation to the helicopters of the French air detachment or their telepilotes.A mission was also organized in Toulouse, in the police zone, for the lifting of doubts.Ras, as they say.
Lieutenant Matthieu Morel, commander of the Air Transport Gendarmerie Brigade (BGTA) in Toulouse-Blagnac
"We do not come out unscathed from certain surveys"»»»
What is the place of your brigade in Occitania?
Like the brigades of Tarbes, Perpignan or Montpellier and the PSIG-TA, we note from the Air Transport Gendarmerie Company.Based at Toulouse-Blagnac airport, the BGTA first ensures that all safety measures are well applied by providers.But our missions extend to the entire Midi-Pyrénées region: aviation safety, control of airport platforms or less importance airports, such as Rodez and Castres, and the finding of any offense linked to theaeronautics.We also have three aircraft drivers including one instructor: it's a very complete team that works hand in hand with the Bea.We intervene more specifically on ultra -light gear crashes or tourism planes.
We dare only imagine what you need to face ...
Death is part of our profession as a gendarme.It is true that in GTA, we can discover corpses in very specific states.But for having been in research unit, I have already found deceased people who seemed to be asleep, others charred, cut, etc..You never get used to it.Even if our strength is humanity, some crime scenes impose a certain detachment.Afterwards, the hardest part is always children ...
Have you ever faced a very deadly crash?
Two of our soldiers participated in the Germanwings investigation.Even if they did not go to the area, they have conducted very precise investigations from the BGTA from which you never come out unscathed ...
And like the planisphere present on your badge, the international component is very present in your profession?
As soon as there is an accident abroad involving French, the GTA is seized.And in another register, we work a lot on the missile launcher developed during the Second World War to counter air raids.In recent years, Libyan stocks have been scattered and certain terrorists in the Sahel, including the Islamic State, seized it.Even if here, the risk is very low, our prevention work consists in mapping the threat worldwide.But there are also training missions in the field in collaboration with the Americans and the British to raise awareness of the premises of the functioning of these weapons and the implementation of dissuasive measurement.With representatives of the Air Force and the Pole Analysis of the risk of civil aviation, we start at mid-September in Africa.
PSIG-TA: anti-terrorist strike force
"It's weird: he's in khaki trellis and he has binoculars.Usually spotters (1) are dressed as you and months.»»»»Except that Chief Warrant Officer Laurent Peiffer has a real war arsenal.In case.Hosting, mass killing, terrorist attack, organized crime: its platon for surveillance and intervention of air transport gendarmerie (PSIG-TA) is adorned to all eventualities."You have to be ready on D -Day so we train all the time to be effective. Il s'agit de réagir au mieux avec les outils adaptés»»»», explique-t-il devant son fusil Famas, casque lourd ou bouclier de défense.Approximate equipment weight: 60 kg. «Mais quand on est en opération, l'adrénaline fait qu'on le supporte mieux et on avance au gré de ce que l'on trouve»»»», signale le n° 2 du PSIG-TA, compétent dans toute l'Occitanie.And he knows what he is talking about.
This former sniper who worked as close as possible to the President of the Republic never had to press the trigger.But every day, he is preparing for it. Mieux encore, le PSIG-TA change régulièrement de lieux d'entraînement pour «casser la routine»»»» et «ne pas s'habituer à certains endroits»»»».“If there is an attack, the first-time arrivants freeze the premises and a team is deployed with a ballistic pack to progress.If the killing continues, we intervene to stop it and request the reinforcement of the GIGN.»»Anticipating this kind of dramatic event also requires substantial intelligence work on employees, travelers or future drivers.And with his sixteen personal, including three cynophile teams, all relentlessly watch over the slightest suspicious behavior. L'individu au treillis aperçu en zone «ville»»»» en train de photographier un site d'Airbus a par exemple été contrôlé. Car depuis le «linéaire»»»», cette route interne à l'aéroport qui dessert toute la «ville»»»» du tarmac, les militaires du PSIG-TA sont identifiés par tous.And this, in permanent connection with the control tower to move on the slopes, beacon to support and according to a specific signage.Even the Beluga XL pilot sometimes takes the time to greet them.Knowledge of their territory which allows them to be all the more operational on missions of research of explosives, weapons or narcotics.
The number: 65
Ans > En 2018.Created on March 31, 1953, the Air Transport Gendarmerie (GTA) celebrates its 65th birthday this year.Depending on the southern grouping and based in Toulouse-Blagnac, the company now brings together Occitania for around 80 soldiers.Or 7 airports, 45 public aerodromes and 350 secondary stations.
Trèbes: Toulousains with maneuver in airspace
From now on, the division of the South Civil Aviation Safety Directorate (DSAC) corresponds to that of the CGTA.An internal reorganization which allowed the company of Occitania to be very reactive for the terrorist attack of the Trèbes Super U, March 23, 2018.“We needed to project people in the area and very quickly strengthen surveillance at Toulouse-Blagnac airport. Les premières minutes, on ne savait pas encore ce qu'il se passait»»»», se rappelle le chef d'escadron Hervé Marie. Après avoir créé une zone d'atterrissage temporaire, les militaires des airs ont «gelé»»»» le ciel des kilomètres autour du supermarché."The goal was that we are only overflown. On a pris l'espace aérien pour dépêcher un hélicoptère et un drone en complément des actions au sol»»»», poursuit le patron de la compagnie.And at the airport, a minimpost of crisis command which has been installed, in particular to facilitate the displacement of the authorities."It is also in this kind of maneuvers that we measure the most value of the knowledge of the gendarmerie of air transport," notes the commander.Hoping that we do not return it.»»»»
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