Worrying Incidents at UK and U.S. Airports
An X-ray screener at Birmingham International Airport was secretly filmed reading a newspaper, ignoring X-ray images of baggage passing across the screen in front of her in an "undercover" investigation shown on UK television in June 1997. The ITV programme also showed security officers at the airport sleeping while on duty, inadequate passenger searches, some planes left unguarded, and aircraft cabins not being searched properly. One worker was secretly filmed boasting that he got a job at the airport despite criminal convictions. A male security supervisor was shown sleeping on a seat near the departure lounge when he should have been carrying out checks on a Continental Airlines flight about to take off for New York. A conversation between two baggage-checkers had one saying laughingly to a colleague who had failed to look at her screen: "You should have been concentrating." The screener replied: "I was bloody miles away."
Unprofessional behaviour from security personnel not only causes huge embarrassment to airports when it is exposed by the media, but it also puts passengers' lives at risk! It's important to bear in mind that although airport x-ray machines may look very sophisticated, they are essentially just IMAGING SYSTEMS, and NOT automated weapons and explosives detectors. A single mistake from an airport x-ray screener could result in a terrorist attack on an airliner, which could mean the loss of hundreds of lives. Therefore, it's vital that training and motivation of screening personnel is of the highest possible standard as it has a direct correlation on the effectiveness of the security screening performed.
Targeted and regular training programmes enhance security and combat complacency. Visit our X-ray Training section to learn more.
Despite heightened awareness of the threat from terrorism, there have been several other incidents at UK airports in recent years:
November 2, 2001: A newspaper disclosed that two of its journalists breached security at Stansted Airport. The Mirror newspaper journalists drove into the staff car park of FLS Aerospace at the airport before walking into the hangar. They walked past a security checkpoint without being asked for identification and spent an hour in the hangar and then got aboard a Boeing 737, where they entered the cockpit. The editor of the specialist publication Jane's Aviation Security said about the incident: "Given the events of September 11th, it is appalling that non-airport staff should have been able not only to gain access to the sensitive airside of Stansted airport but also to board aircraft unchallenged".
January 2002: Undercover reporters from the Sunday People newspaper smuggled weapons on to a British Airways jet. A four-inch dagger, a razor sharp stiletto knife and a small cleaver were taken on to the Boeing 737 plane at Gatwick bound for Manchester. They took photographs of the weapons in one of the plane's toilets during the flight. The same investigators had smuggled the weapons onto two BA planes at Heathrow and Manchester airports the previous week. The newspaper’s editor Neil Wallis said his reporters' actions were justified in the wake of the 11th September attacks. "Most of us fly at some time or another and after 11th September most of us thought the world had to change," he told the BBC. "We decided to experiment and find out last week whether or not they have done what they said they had - make flight security safer." Mr Wallis said there seemed to be an air of complacency when reporters carried out the first investigation at Heathrow and Manchester, so the paper had decided to do it again. "I was genuinely shocked and appalled that we were able to do it again," he said. "I pray people are not going to have to die before people take this seriously."
April 2004: A disabled seven-year-old boy took an unscheduled ride on the conveyor belt of London Stansted airport’s baggage handling system. The boy, who has Down's Syndrome, was carried away on the belt after clambering through an unmanned check-in desk. After travelling horizontally for about 15 metres, he was transferred to another belt for a 15-yard and was then switched to a third, at which point he went through an X-ray machine. He was then diverted on to a separate side channel where luggage is hand checked by security staff. The boy was checked by a paramedic but, apart from a graze on his face, was unhurt and able to resume his journey, but he could have been hurt much more seriously within the baggage handling system, or even killed. There is also a small risk from the x-ray radiation to which he would have been subjected to.
August 14, 2006: A 12-year-old boy boarded a flight at Gatwick Airport without any passport or documentation. The youngster walked on to a plane bound for Lisbon.
September 11, 2006: Two teenagers manage to get through security at Newcastle Airport without boarding passes or travel documents on the anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Centre.
There have also been many disturbing incidents exposed by the media at U.S. airports. In December 2006, a woman going through security at Los Angeles International Airport put her month-old grandson into a plastic bin intended for carry-on items and it went into the X-ray machine. The early morning incident caught the security screeners by surprise, even though the security line was not busy at the time. A screener watching the machine's monitor noticed the baby's X-ray image and pulled the bin out of the machine. The infant was taken to hospital to be checked for radiation exposure.
The U.S. travelling public would probably be very uncomfortable with the level of security many airport screeners appear to be providing if they knew that screeners often fail Covert Tests designed to test their skills and alertness, according to several news reports. For example, investigators successfully smuggled 75 percent of the fake bombs through checkpoints at Los Angeles International Airport, and 60 percent through Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, according to a report by CNN in October 2007. CNN reported that the tests in question were conducted from October 2005 to September 2006. Investigators posed as passengers, concealing fake bombs, bomb components and weapons in their clothing and carry-on bags as they went through security screening.
On 15th November 2007 CNN reported that Investigators with bomb-making components in their luggage and on their person were able to pass through security checkpoints at 19 U.S. airports without detection, according to details CNN obtained from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). The GAO investigators devised two types of devices: an "improvised explosive device" made of a liquid explosive and a low-yield detonator, and an "improvised incendiary device" that could be created by combining commonly available products prohibited in carry-on luggage. The GAO said it found the instructions for creating the devices "using publicly available information," including Internet searches. According to the testimony, a transportation security officer barred one of the investigators from bringing an unlabeled bottle of medicated shampoo through the checkpoint. But the security officer allowed a liquid component of the improvised explosive device to pass through undetected, although that item is prohibited by the TSA. GAO investigators concluded that if they had attempted the same test at other U.S. airports, they would have evaded detection. And on 28th January 2008, in a report that CNN filmed at an airport and ran on its Web site, an undercover official successfully got past security at Tampa International Airport with a simulated bomb in a security test.
While screeners at UK and U.S. airports do routinely confiscate hundreds of thousands of contraband items every year, the vast majority of these are items are things like cigarette lighters, penknives and large bottles of liquids being carried unwittingly by passengers who are not trying to conceal them. But screeners repeatedly seem to fail to detect dangerous items when they are deliberately concealed. Many experts warn that a motivated group of terrorists may have little difficulty getting well-concealed weapons or explosive devices past security screeners at many UK and U.S. airports. It is imperative that all airport x-ray screeners be given high-quality training on CBT systems that contain images which closely approximate how a terrorist might actually construct and conceal an IED or weapon. Unless screeners see realistic threat items in training, they cannot be expected to identify them at the checkpoint and passengers' lives will continue to be put at risk.
Visit our X-ray Training section to learn more.
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