Luton security

[LTNman]

Is Luton immune from the attentions of would be terrorists? While the terminal has armed police, outside the terminal it is a different story. On occasions the drop off area has a car park attendant there who monitors the entry barrier but much of the time there is no one on duty. The barriers are often left open with motorists parking just 10ft from the side of the terminal while they go into the terminal. I have seen cars parked unattended for over 30 minutes with not a sign of any interest from airport security.

Despite the bus and coach station being barred to cars many motorists ignore the no entry signs and park in front of the entrance to the terminal without fear of being moved on.

It doesn’t end there; a few months back a section of temporary fencing by Taxiway Echo was taken down and left overnight before the new permanent fence was installed the following day. Then two weeks ago the gate by the Flying Club was wide open and unattended during my twenty minute visit. Come on Luton and get your act together.
:mad:

[easyprison]

What else do you expect from London’s third world airport?

Luton airport is a dump. It's so depressing I don't think terrorists would even bother going through it!

[Cathar]

Is parking outside the terminal such a big deal. You can legally park outside a number of government departments, department stores and major tourist attractions in London.

[LBAir]

The :mad: department from the government visited :mad: today. It is honestly a waste of time, not because they're not doing their job right, but because as soon as they appear the job is done correctly and as soon as they depart it all goes out the window. :mad: is seriously effected by this. :mad: are poorly paid and undermaned working upto 65 hours per week.

[TightSlot]

Last year I went through a brief period of having a sequence of pax arrested on arrival @ LTN (8 in 3 months) - since then , touch wood, I've been lucky. The worst event was a saturday night inbound, witha party of 4 aggressive drunks, smoking in lavs, taking drugs, threatening crew and all the usual charming behaviour that we know and love. During descent, the Captain called Ops to ask for police to meet the aircraft, since there was also a very real chance of other pax attacking the 4 once on the apron.

As usual, on arrival, no sign of police, and no interest from anybody. Cutting a long story short, eventually the Heat were persuaded to turn up and escort out friends to the nick. The officers advised that the airport has no formal police presence, and that the reason for the delay was that we went to the bottom of the saturday night queue for drunk drivers, nightclub fracas (plur: fracasses?) and so on. Lovely - thanks for that! I'm very reassured.

[LGS6753]

Today it's all changed.
Outside the Terminal are Police cars blocking close access to the Terminal, and parking wardens in evidence.
Around the central area Police are patrolling car parks, airport access roads, the hotels, flying club area and freight terminal.
Inside the Terminal are Police officers with what look like sub-machine guns.
Has there been a scare, or is it an exercise or does LTNman have influence in high places?
Oh, and by the way, this increase in security has been done reassuringly. The boys in blue are highly visible, but not intrusive or obstructive. Just right, well done!!

[DeepC]

Luton built the drop off area within a couple of metres of the terminal building. It has been like that now for years and I can't see why only now you are getting worried about it. I travel through Luton fairly regularly and have done for the past five years and it is very rare not to see armed police in the terminal building and milling around in departures.

As has been said the proximity of a public car park or road to a busy public space is not limited to London Luton Airport. How about any number of places in London.

Gates open and unguarded to airside is a different matter and obviously should be immmediately brought to the attention of the airport security guys.

DeepC

[Alloy]

Is there a police station at LTN?

From what I understand the police station at Halcyon House was closed in the 90's just as the airport was starting to expand. Unlike most other largish UK airports there is no Luton Airport police station. Is this correct? If it is correct with the increasing numbers through LTN is it not time this closure was reversed? I was tolled part of the delay in having police meet an aircraft is due to the lack of spare onsite police.

[LTNman]

Yesterday there might have been an increased presence in security but today it was back to normal as I saw a couple of cars parked up by the entrance to the terminal. This is meant to be a prohibited area for cars with no entry and security warning signs. The duty manager complete with his fluorescent jacket walked right past them and didn’t say a word.
:mad: :mad: