Airport Security, Immigration & Border Control

[Aviador]

Related topics can be posted here. Please be reminded that this is a public forum. Do not post things that could hinder airport or airline security.

 

[News Guru]

[textarea]Security alert at Belfast Airport car park

There is a security alert at Belfast International Airport car park today. Police and army bomb experts are examining a suspicious vehicle which was discovered in the long-stay car park at about 14:30.

Flights are currently not affected, however travellers are advised to check with their airlines for more information, and may struggle to access the long term car park. It is understood the alert is not linked to bombs left on US-bound cargo planes, but may be connected to another security alert in the city.

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[News Guru]

[textarea]Bomb in Belfast Airport car park for almost a year?

There are reports that a car containing a viable explosive device may have been sitting in the long stay car park at Belfast International Airport for almost a year. A pipe bomb and suspected flammable liquid was found in a grey-coloured Toyota Carina car on Saturday afternoon. The bomb was only discovered because the car was about to be towed away.

In a statement, the airport said speculation about the length of time the car and the device stayed unnoticed in the car park was ‘unhelpful at this time. The PSNI are continuing to investigate the exact circumstances around the incident at Belfast International Airport on Saturday 30 October. As the incident is the subject of an active police investigation, the airport will not be adding to what the Police have already said.'

The airport parking company Q Park said ‘it was confident that car had not been there for a year’. However, the firm said it had not pre-booked and as such was not subject to its automatic number plate recognition software.

Police said they would not comment on the matter, but detectives have appealed for anyone who noticed the Toyota Carina carrying the registration number PDZ 2001 in the long stay car park at the airport to contact them.

The car was removed for further forensic tests in the early hours of Sunday morning and, although flights were not affected by the incident, passengers were unable to get their cars, causing major problems. Some passengers were forced to spend the night in local hotels because they were unable to get home without their cars, whilst others needed to take taxis.

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[News Guru]

[textarea]Belfast Airport cannabis smuggler jailed

A Dublin man who tried to smuggle £18,000 worth of cannabis through Belfast International Airport has been jailed for six months. Kenneth Farrell, 22, of Bluebell Road, was sentenced after officers from the UK Border Agency caught him with 1.8 kgs of the drug when he arrived on a flight from Amsterdam in November.

At Antrim's Crown Court, Mr Farrell admitted to importing the illegal substance and was sentenced to six months imprisonment. In response to a request from the defence barrister for a suspended sentence His Honour Judge Smyth Q.C. told Farrell: ‘You have passed the threshold and it I think it is important that I back up the checks the UK Border Agency do.’

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[News Guru]

[textarea]Belfast Airport backs calls for two tier airport security

Belfast International Airport is spending almost £10m a year on aviation security and has raised concerns that the levels of checks faced by passengers are excessive, the Belfast Telegraph reports. Its security bill is over three times the amount spent 10 years ago, and it has backed airline industry body the International Air Transport Association's (IATA) claims that billions are being wasted on unnecessary security checks for travellers.

IATA has warned that the main UK airports are struggling to cope with mounting layers of safety regulations that are costing £4.6bn a year to implement. The group has called for the implementation of an airport screening regime that gives preferential treatment to low risk passengers - a call backed by the Belfast airport, which says it welcomes attempts to streamline security.

IATA director general Tony Tyler said keeping up with aviation security was a crippling - and, in his view, unnecessary - expenditure. He wants the Government to pay for security instead of airports, airlines and passengers. He said: ‘We spend huge amount screening people who, quite frankly, do not need it. We need to find a better way of doing it. We are putting our customers through an immensely complicated and, most of the time, unnecessary, hassle.’

UK airports are backing a programme being developed by the US Transportation Security Administration where low-risk passengers could be given less stringent checks if they supply information, including frequent flyer details and travel records.

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[TheLocalYokel]

[textarea]Queue chaos at Belfast International Airport as scanners left unmanned

Belfast International Airport has issued a grovelling apology after furious passengers described chaotic scenes as the queue through security became completely overwhelmed.

Irate flyers were left fuming after only one 14-strong security team was put on duty last night – while six scanners sat unmanned.

Frustrated passengers who arrived in plenty of time for boarding took to Twitter to express their frustration, some claiming they were being forced to pay extra for priority boarding cards to jump to the front of the queue in order to make their flight.

"The airport is basically ripping us off by charging us to get through security. It's an insult," said one caller to the Belfast Telegraph after an hour waiting.[/textarea]

Full article at http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/ ... 45974.html

Understandably passengers cannot fathom why situations like this occur. Cynics (and others for that matter) might think it's a way of getting passengers to shell out for fast-track passage through the security stations.