AIRPORT SECURITY LAPSES EXPOSED
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| Humberside International Airport |
Inside Out exposes loopholes in airport security
at Humberside International Airport, leading to a damning indictment
from an aviation security expert.
Reporter Sophie Hull and a two-man film team simply walked
onto the aircraft manoeuvring area at Humberside International Airport
through an open gate and spent half an hour wandering around aircraft
and watching jets land and take off.
The BBC team were also able to record while passengers
boarded a Britannia flight little over 100 yards away.
| "You could have been terrorists" |
| Chris Yates, aviation security expert |
Aviation security expert Chris Yates gives Inside Out
a damning indictment of the state of security at the airport, which has
daily charter flights and scheduled services to Amsterdam and several
domestic destinations.
He says: "This is a shining example of how not to do
security… I am shocked and totally appalled.
"They should have better security than this. You
could have been terrorists."
| Revelations |
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The Inside Out team found that:
The open gate which allows light plane pilots out
to their aircraft - just off the main access road to the airport
- was permanently unmanned.
The airfield perimeter fence ends just 50 yards
from a public road.
The radio frequency used by airport security staff
was published on the internet.
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Passenger increases
Humberside is one of a series of regional airports enjoying
a rapid rise in international flights.
The airport deny their security is leaky - and insist
they have consistently passed tough inspections by the Department for
Transport and the Regions.
They say they've now closed the loophole Sophie used
to enter the airfield - although they insist this was already planned
and is nothing to do with the Inside Out investigation.
Airport Director Rob Goldsmith tells Inside Out: "We
have many forms of security all around the airfield, some of which are
using smart technology. They are geared to the appropriateness of the
threat in each specific zone of the airport.
"We have a level of security we're confident about which
is geared towards protecting passengers… we're confident passengers using
this airport can feel secure and safe."
Interrogation
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| Reporter Sophie
Hull on the airfield: "I was amazed." |
Ironically Sophie Hull and her team were finally stopped
by security staff the day after they’d walked around the apron of the
airport - while filming a short sequence in the terminal.
They were questioned for nearly three hours by Special
Branch officers before being released without charge.
Sophie says: "It’s perhaps ironic they were more interested
in what we had filmed and where we had been than whether we posed a threat
to passenger safety.
"I was amazed at the ease with which we got into
very sensitive areas of the airport."
International concern
Officials at Schipol Airport in Holland - Humberside’s
most popular foreign destination - say they’re concerned with security
standards at UK regional airports because transit baggage and passengers
are rarely screened again after their first departure.
Small regional airports were exploited by terrorists
in the September 11 outrage and in the bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie.
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