Roguish Lawyer
08-24-2004, 12:55
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1538&u=/afp/20040823/wl_uk_afp/britain_air_security_040823230328&printer=1
Probe after journalist smuggles fake bomb on British plane
Mon Aug 23, 7:03 PM ET
LONDON (AFP) - British transport officials launched an urgent investigation after an undercover reporter smuggled fake bomb-making equipment on board a holiday jet at a central England airport.
"We are following with the airport the security issues raised as a matter of urgency," a spokesman from the government's Department of Transport said after the apparent lapse.
The probe was ordered after the journalist posed as a baggage handler at Birmingham International Airport and took fake explosive equipment on to a Boeing 757 carrying 220 holidaymakers.
According to the Sun, Britain's top-selling daily newspaper, reporter Anthony France, 31, was employed by private contractor Aviance despite giving bogus references and bank details.
The newspaper published Tuesday photographs France took of himself with the fake bomb in the hold of the Thomas Cook flight bound for Mallorca when he was left alone by supervisors for five minutes last week.
Although the fake bomb's components set off the metal detector, France was apparently waved through after telling staff steel toecaps had activated the alarm.
The Sun said the 200-gram makeshift device was half the size of the bomb which blew up a flight in mid-air over Lockerbie, southwest Scotland, in December 1988, killing all 259 people on board plus 11 on the ground.
"Had I been one of Osama Bin Laden's terrorists, I could have wiped out more than 220 British passengers... and thousands more on the ground below," France said.
Probe after journalist smuggles fake bomb on British plane
Mon Aug 23, 7:03 PM ET
LONDON (AFP) - British transport officials launched an urgent investigation after an undercover reporter smuggled fake bomb-making equipment on board a holiday jet at a central England airport.
"We are following with the airport the security issues raised as a matter of urgency," a spokesman from the government's Department of Transport said after the apparent lapse.
The probe was ordered after the journalist posed as a baggage handler at Birmingham International Airport and took fake explosive equipment on to a Boeing 757 carrying 220 holidaymakers.
According to the Sun, Britain's top-selling daily newspaper, reporter Anthony France, 31, was employed by private contractor Aviance despite giving bogus references and bank details.
The newspaper published Tuesday photographs France took of himself with the fake bomb in the hold of the Thomas Cook flight bound for Mallorca when he was left alone by supervisors for five minutes last week.
Although the fake bomb's components set off the metal detector, France was apparently waved through after telling staff steel toecaps had activated the alarm.
The Sun said the 200-gram makeshift device was half the size of the bomb which blew up a flight in mid-air over Lockerbie, southwest Scotland, in December 1988, killing all 259 people on board plus 11 on the ground.
"Had I been one of Osama Bin Laden's terrorists, I could have wiped out more than 220 British passengers... and thousands more on the ground below," France said.