Fri 'The Australian"
Virgin's hoax bomb labelled a stunt
Steve Creedy, Aviation writer
September 24, 2004
A HOAX bomb found in the hold of a Virgin Blue Boeing 737 and mistakenly taken into a Sydney Airport terminal on Monday, was placed on the airline after it landed.
Authorities investigating who planted the "bomb", a toilet roll with a fireworks sparkler attached, also believe the incident was a stunt.
Transport Minister John Anderson said yesterday he could not rule out a member of a union being responsible.
"At the very least you'd have to say this is not an action by a terrorist," he told Sydney radio station 2UE. "It was plainly designed to look like a bomb.
"So someone or some group of people have done a very inappropriate, a very stupid thing and, if we can get to the bottom of who it was, then they ought to suffer the full wrath of the law."
Unions have been critical of the federal Government's security policies and the training provided for airport workers.
But the accusations of a union campaign brought an angry retort from the Transport Workers Union, which described it as "ludicrous and an insult to workers at Sydney Airport".
"It's some wannabe terrorist, some weirdo," said TWU airport organiser Glenn Nightingale. "We'll work with the federal police and hopefully these people will be caught." Mr Nightingale said the incident highlighted inadequate emergency procedures at Virgin.
"The workers are not appropriately trained in any security or incident response of who to contact or what to do," he said.
Virgin Blue's head of commercial operations David Huttner said the airline believed the device was planted by an airport worker "with an agenda".
"It (the device) was not something that goes boom, it was something that burns, which means somebody had to be there to light it." A baggage handler unloading Virgin flight DJ-474 from Maroochydore on Monday uncovered a plastic bag containing the hoax bomb. The roll was originally believed to be filled with the incendiary material thermite but a federal police spokesman said yesterday there was no evidence "at this stage" to suggest the item contained explosives.
The handler breached protocol by taking the package into the terminal where it is believed to have been handled by at least three people before it was brought to the attention of the federal police. The aircraft was also allowed to leave and flew to Ballina, in rural NSW, and back before it was searched.
While NSW police say they were not informed of the incident until almost two hours later, Virgin said it told Australian Protective Service officers within 15 minutes of the object's discovery.
The federal police spokesman said an APS bomb appraisal officer assessed the item and requested the attendance of NSW police. "Response times were in accordance with operational protocols established between relevant agencies," he said.
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Fri "The Age"
Jet hoax exposes lapse in security
By Alexandra Smith, Brendan Nicholson
Angela O'Connor
September 24, 2004
Many contract airport workers at Australian airports have no air security identification cards, even though the Federal Government ordered major checks 18 months ago.
The lapse has been exposed by an apparent hoax in which explosive material was placed in the cargo hold of a Virgin airliner this week.
Transport Minister John Anderson said the Australian Federal Police were investigating the discovery of an incendiary device in the plane's hold at Sydney Airport on Monday morning.
The device consisted of a cardboard toilet roll tube packed with the explosive thermite and made of aluminium dust and iron oxide. Attached to it was a sparkler.
Investigators are trying to track down who put it there.
They also want to know why the baggage handler who found it took it into a terminal in breach of security, and why the aircraft was then allowed to take off without a thorough search.
A Transport Workers Union senior airline official, Glenn Nightingale, said the incident highlighted the inadequacies of security, staff training and incident handling procedures at Sydney Airport.
Mr Nightingale said the union had been concerned since the September 11 atrocity in the US about identification cards, particularly for contract airport staff who could work with a visitor's pass rather than an air security card.
The security cards allow airport workers unsupervised entry into secure areas of airports, while contractors without the cards who need access to secure areas are meant to be supervised by a card holder, the union says.
Mr Anderson's spokesman rejected the union claim last night, saying no casual workers had unsupervised access to sensitive areas such as tarmacs or aircraft holds.
Virgin Blue's head of commercial operations, David Huttner, said the airline believed an airport worker was responsible for this week's incident.
He said the device, in a plastic bag, was not passenger baggage. There was no other explanation for it being in the cargo hold.
The hoax has triggered a tightening of security procedures at airports across Australia.
A baggage handler found the device in an unmarked plastic bag and carried it into a passenger terminal.
The aircraft had arrived from Maroochydore, but it is not clear if the package was loaded there or in Sydney.
Mr Anderson said he was sure the device was part of a hoax and not a terrorist attack, but lessons would be learned and changes made.
"We seek to close off every loophole as it appears," he said.
He said the federal Transport Department was training baggage handlers further.
The episode appeared to be a foolish or an illegal act, but not an act of terrorism.
The baggage handler thought he knew best when he carried the device into the terminal to hand it to security staff.
"He should have just obeyed his superior," Mr Anderson said.
But he said the fact that the baggage handler found the device proved the system was working.
A distinction had to be drawn between terrorists and people trying to make a point or trying to big-note themselves, he said.
Investigators are confident the explosive material was placed aboard the Virgin jet by an airport worker with a security clearance.
All staff with access to security areas must have a proper identification card, which requires background checks by ASIO. The Government says 58,000 checks have been carried out so far without any worker emerging as a possible threat.
· The Maritime Union of Australia has written to the Prime Minister complaining about a "flag of convenience" ship carrying potentially explosive ammonium nitrate. The union's assistant national secretary, Mick Doleman, said the use of such vessels to carry dangerous cargo was a threat to national security.
The Singapore-registered Protesilaus Union was due to leave Newcastle today with 1800 tonnes of the fertiliser on board. Ammonium nitrate was the main ingredient of the Oklahoma City bomb, which killed 168 people in 1995.
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Last edited by Wirraway; 23rd Sep 2004 at 20:14.