At El Al, the Watchers Have Watchers

El Al, the Israeli airline, is known to have the toughest security measures of any air carrier in the world. Many of its procedures are now being emulated by other carriers. The airline pays as much attention to the cargo it carries as it does to passengers and their carry-on baggage. At Kennedy International Airport, for example, everything that is put aboard an El Al plane is first carried through a bunkerlike building. What’s inside is top secret.

Two El Al security men stand guard at the kosher kitchens where the airline’s meals are prepared. Cargo and baggage tags are stamped with almost-unnoticeable letters and the letters are changed every flight in an effort to make sure that nothing unauthorized can be slipped onto an El Al plane.

El Al security people are often subjected to “exercises” in which an object is placed in a terminal to see how much time passes before it is noticed and investigated.

To assure alertness, special undercover agents keep watch on the security forces.

Members of the security force are believed to be Israeli government employees because they are paid through local consulates, but the airline will neither confirm nor deny that.