{"id":26681,"date":"2025-01-09T06:58:10","date_gmt":"2025-01-09T11:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/?p=26681"},"modified":"2025-01-09T19:36:26","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T00:36:26","slug":"germany-crew-being-charged-for-sneaky-security-checks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/germany-crew-being-charged-for-sneaky-security-checks\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany: Crew Being Charged for Sneaky Security Checks"},"content":{"rendered":"<h6><strong>Key Points<\/strong><\/h6>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><span style=\"color: #993300;\">July 2024:<\/span> We wrote about some <a href=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/german-ops-gotchas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">strange happenings<\/a> reported by OPSGROUP members at German airports &#8211; random security checks performed by LBA staff (Germany&#8217;s Civil Aviation Authority) to ensure the proper protocols were being followed by crew.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>These are not ramp checks, they are sneaky checks to see whether crew follow the right security procedures. They basically try to enter the aircraft, and your job is to make sure you stop them. <\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><span style=\"color: #993300;\">Jan 2025:<\/span> We\u2019re now hearing that the LBA have started charging operators for these checks! One member reported receiving a 330 Euro invoice for a check that took place at EDDM\/Munich. Another reported the same thing at EDDV\/Hannover and EDDS\/Stuttgart. It seems that opting-out of these checks is not possible!<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>Surprise invoices<\/h4>\n<p>In December and we received a fresh report from an OPSGROUP member. During a recent stop at <strong>EDDM\/Munich<\/strong>, they were the unwitting recipients of one these surprise security checks.<\/p>\n<p>Later, they received an invoice from the LBA for 330 Euros &#8211; despite having no ability to opt out. Here&#8217;s an excerpt:<\/p>\n<h4><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-26695\" src=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Invoice-1024x594.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"594\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Invoice-1024x594.png 1024w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Invoice-300x174.png 300w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Invoice-768x446.png 768w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Invoice.png 1144w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/strong>What the LBA had to say<\/h4>\n<p>It was the first we had heard of crew being involuntarily invoiced for these random security inspections and so reached out to the LBA directly.<\/p>\n<p>Apparently, a legal document called the <strong>Aviation Security Fees Ordinance<\/strong> (or <em>Luftsicherheitsgeb\u00fchrenverordnung<\/em> for short) was amended in February 2024 to enable LBA to collect fees to cover the costs of \u2018surveillance measures\u2019 which includes the surprise security checks in question.<\/p>\n<p>Fair or not, it looks as though this practice will continue at German airports indefinitely.<\/p>\n<h4>The checks themselves<\/h4>\n<p>We previously enquired as to the <strong>legality<\/strong> of these checks and were referred by the LBA to another document \u2013 the <a href=\"https:\/\/eur-lex.europa.eu\/legal-content\/EN\/TXT\/?uri=CELEX%3A32015R1998\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">EU Implementing Regulation 2015\/1998<\/a> which is all about <em>basic standards on aviation security<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>We read it so you don\u2019t have to \u2013 and couldn\u2019t find anything in it warning crew to look out for weird notes or unwelcome visitors in high-viz vests entering your aircraft with no ID.<\/p>\n<p>The legal framework is there, but from an operational perspective but we still have the following concerns:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Crew are being tricked into compliance.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>These invasive checks have now been incentivized.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>There is no ability for crew to opt out of being charged.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Aviation security is a team effort, not a commercial enterprise. And for that reason, we feel this a concerning precedent to set.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_26698\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-26698\" class=\"size-large wp-image-26698\" src=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/check-1024x580.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"580\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/check-1024x580.webp 1024w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/check-300x170.webp 300w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/check-768x435.webp 768w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/check.webp 1060w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-26698\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Security checks are distinct to traditional ramp checks.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n<h4>Please get in touch with us<\/h4>\n<p>When we write Ops Alerts to members we have a specific category for costs, as they often come as an <strong>unwelcome surprise<\/strong> to operators. We do our best to get the word out to help others. If you come across these in your travels, please reach out to us on <a href=\"mailto:team@ops.group\">team@ops.group<\/a> so that we can keep the group informed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Points July 2024: We wrote about some strange happenings reported by OPSGROUP members at&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":26684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2279,770],"class_list":{"0":"post-26681","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-briefings","8":"tag-costs","9":"tag-germany"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26681"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26711,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26681\/revisions\/26711"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}