Merged: Chaos at Perth Airport - All flights Grounded

[lc_461]

Suspicious package at Perth airport

May 4, 2008 - 5:55AM

Police have evacuated the Perth International Airport building and flights have been diverted after a suspicious package was found on a Malaysian Airlines flight.

Perth's Sunday Times newspaper says all outgoing flights are indefinitely delayed, and Air New Zealand and Emirates flights remain on the tarmac.
Police said all the last incoming international flights - Singapore Airlines, Qantas and Emirates - have landed safely at the domestic airport.
Police spokesman Neil Stanbury told the paper the evacuation began at about 6 pm (WST) on Saturday night after suspicious luggage from incoming Flight 125 was discovered.
The Malaysian Airlines plane landed at 3 pm and was due to leave for Kuala Lumpur as Flight 124 at 4.30 pm. Police had blocked all entrances to the airport and cars were backed up for several hundred metres on Horrie Miller Drive.
Hundreds of people were still arriving at the airport at 11 pm for late night flights but were unable to enter the airport as planes remained grounded.
Assistant Commissioner John McRoberts said a package, which was among unaccompanied freight on a Malaysian Airlines flight, was found on the bitumen underneath an aircraft.
Bomb squad technicians would move it to a safe place where it could be x-rayed, and the process was likely to take some time, he said.
Commissioner McRoberts said it was likely to be the biggest scale operation at the airport that he was aware of.
Perth Domestic Airport remains fully operational.
© 2008 AAP (http://news.smh.com.au/action/displayCopyrightNotice?sourceOrganisation=AAP)]

Caused absolute chaos... Aparently intl terminal is still shut down, just reported on Sunrise that it is a "serious national security incident"

Anyone there or know anything else?

[DOME]

After 12 hours of chaos - "a harmless package".

Why would it take appropriately trained and equipped specialists 12 hours of disruption to arrive at this result?

Would love to be at the debrief.

[RENURPP]

I still get a laugh out of this security non sense.

At Darwin a few years ago, it was after 9/11, a F/A reported a box that was sitting on the apron area near a gate, airside. Sensible course of action I guess.
It did fit the description of a suspicious article.
She reported it to the "Protective Services" person parading around the apron with his BIG GUN in its holster, ready for action.
His action was to walk over the box and kick it to see if any thing was inside. Laugh, I laughed so hard I almost S^&t myself.

[dreamjob]

Hahah RENURPP, that almost made me fall off my seat! :D

[Brian Abraham]

which was among unaccompanied freight on a Malaysian Airlines flight, was found on the bitumen underneath an aircraft
Fallen off a baggage trolley? Or am I too much the simpleton?

[Monopole]

Fallen off a baggage trolley That was my first thought aswell. Maybe that makes two of us being a bit simple :uhoh::ooh:

More like another knee jerk reaction. What does a suspect package look like anyway :confused:

[fallen]

Fallen off a baggage trolley? Or am I too much the simpleton?Not "found" at all, but rather unloaded from the plane and placed there by a baggage handler.

[Capt Fathom]

What does a suspect package look like anyway

Look for Sunglasses, Fake Nose & Moustache. :ok:

[Monopole]

Yep, I guess I walked into that one :cool:

I've done my time as a rampie, and on almost every flight, I would unload some freight/baggage and for one reason or another put it on the tarmac so it can be placed on top of everything when the aircraft had finished being unloaded. On more then one occasion, I must admit to having forgot about it and left it there. It is amazing how an honest human mistake can shut down an International airport for 12 hours.

[Wingspar]

Likewise, items left under the bulk cargo door for loading is not an unfamiliar sight at airports I frequent.

[fallen]

It is amazing how an honest human mistake can shut down an International airport for 12 hours.You've slightly misunderstood. No mistake. The news report states the boxes were found, suggesting that they magically appeared from somewhere. As I understand it, they were off loaded as normal and then noticed to be "suspicious".

There's something I'm missing though, 'cause i can't understand why it would take took 12 hours to clear a fairly regular occurrence.

[Capt Claret]

We may well laugh about it but we're now so scared of our own shadows that ridiculous amounts of money are being burned, trying to provide illumination. When the next economic downturn comes, the industry won't be able to support the inordinate costs, and guess who'll pay the price??

[ROH111]

Wait till something blows up and kills someone.

See who think's it's all a laugh then, hey guys?

[Lucky Six]

Monopole's question is very valid. What does make a package or bag suspicious? Is it the fact that everything unattended in an aviation environment is considered suspicious that results in these knee jerk reactions?

[altonacrude]

The Onion News Network reports that the suspicious package industry has been doing it hard in recent times when everything, not just packages, has become suspicious. Suspicious package retailers are wondering if they have a future in the post-9/11 world. It quotes Paul Townsend, whose store, All Things Unattended, in Albany, New York, has found that people window-shop but they don't come in any more and buy.

Video report here (http://www.theonion.com/content/video/suspicious_package_industry_falls?utm_source=videomrss_77653 ).

If there are more occasions where Australian Federal Police spend 12 hours admiring a suspicious package, lots more people might be tempted to buy a suspicious package of their own.

Can the suspicious package industry be revived? Or is it, as the report suggests, the end of an era?

[Hugh Mungus]

Is it just me ,or do others think that the 12 hour closure of Perth Airport because someone cant tell the difference between a box of artificial Flowers and a Bomb seems a bit strange. Could this be an empowering Industrial Relations Ploy ....if so the Baggies have now got a Powerful IR Weapon . 12 hours...I mean Cmon Guys ..:=

[airtags]

Alton
stunt, dropped catch or deliberate action - does it really matter except in post rationale - and if one is around for the debrief then it 's a good day!

Reality is that no self respecting (?) terrorist would probably be bothered to waste time and effort with all the random inconsistent airline security stuff when there are perfectly good petrol tankers unloading thousands of litres of fuel with the keys in the ignition while the only scrutiny being the solo driver while he gets a 7/11 hotdog and coffee and has a pee........(9/11 vs 7/11? ............nostradamis followers feel free to jump in)

That said we are now in a place where there is no middle ground or what may be regarded as commonsense rationale - so now doubt there will be more of these incidents to come.......perhaps therefore it may be a good idea to not ask or even contemplate "where will it all end"

shares in sus packages closed lower today

:)

[Capt Wally]

I bet there's been zillions of these so called 'sus' packages left lying about an airport over the years for a variety of reasons, probably most have just been put there innocously by someone & nobody took any notice. Why did this/these packages create such a huge kafuffle? Beacuse they where left unattended OUT IN THE OPEN for all to see! Had these same packages been dropped off, placed upon the ground or been shaken up by some 'baggy' thinking it might be worth something in an area that wasn't for all to see we wouldn't even be having this conversation !:bored:

Madness at it's worst!:bored:

The threat of terror is alive & well & WE are creating it !:bored:

CW

[Islander Jock]

If it was just airfreight dropped off the baggage cart then surely a quick external examination of the baggage tag or con note would have verified that it was indeed off the aircraft concerned.

I wonder if a few people with security agendas seized this event as an opportunity to justify their otherwise boring existence?

[Capt Claret]

Had a suspicious article, a brief case in fact, left on a seat durig a transit stop a few years ago.

What's suspicious about a brief case I hear some one ask?

The Welcome to PA advised pax to take personal belongings and not to leave anything on the seat, or in the seat pocket. The case was on a seat that was unoccupied. There was no name tag on the case, and, a wire, or part of a spring could be seen at one of the two combination locks.

Interestingly the Ground Ops folks wanted us the carry it into the terminal and they'd search for the owner.

The AFP blokes asked us to leave the aeroplane, grabbed their portable x-ray equipment, x-rayed the bag in situ, and we were under way with only a 12 minute delay.

Our security blokes musta been 60 times more efficient that the ones in Perth, 'ey? :oh:

[bushy]

Maybe some "authority" should be sued?

[RENURPP]

I was watching the baggage trolley go past today and I think I saw one of those suspicious packages. :eek:
I was seriously considering calling security and asking them to chack it out, BUT the forecaste for Cairns was for a nice day and I have 36 hrs off, :) so I reconsidered, any way I digress.
The suspicious bag was a black case, :uhoh: slightly larger than a brief case with a false handle, made out of imported (foreign) leather. :} It was sitting at the rear of the trolley all by itself? The false handle looked like it was made of an old tea towell or the like. :oh:
Although it had a dodgy handle, it did have a business class tag on it ? :confused:
I checked the trolley and couldn't see any other bags that looked to be accompanying this case so I was happy by itself it wouldn't cause too many problems.:8

[airtags]

Maybe there's some kind of inter-airport security competition going on? :E
- SACL posted last Friday a 'Security Awareness' newsletter to all who hold a SACL security/access card - rather a strange 4 pages stating the absolute obvious - all individually addressed and even with a first name salutation.

The reported 12 hours to resolve the issue in PER is a little over the top - I was in Singapore a week ago and one of the shopping centres had a similar incident - centre cleared, package & bag x-rayed and removed and centre re-opened - time taken = 35 minutes.

I'm all for keeping it safe and secure, but I can't help thinking that the paranoid meter at a few Australian airports is running a little into the red zone.

[bushy]

Surely when an airline accepts your baggage they are responsible for it, and should keep it under their control and not let it become "suspicious" abandoned baggage. Did they just dump it and neglect it so no-one knew where it came from?

[Capt Wally]

There's a good chance it was just left there on the ground for whatever reason & the trolley guy simply drove off & never saw it again! Happens ALL the time at any airport, just this time someone hit the panick button & the rest is typical hysteria!
I used to work at Tulla (in the oil industry) years ago now & saw so many 'sus' packages on the ground & around an A/C left unattended that almost nobody bothered about then 'till someone all but ran over them, that was 'till 9/11, after that even an M/T cigarette packet was 'sus' !:bored:



CW


CW

[aerosoul]

12 hours, what an embarrassment!:\

[bushy]

I think many of them are just bigger.

[gaunty]

Spent a bit of time around the world just recently, it gets worse, especially the US, where they stop just short of a colonoscopy before you are allowed near the gate.

Fair enough, but get this, when you get on the bird and having your first champagne for the flight you're sitting on top of as many cargo igloos as they can get on board. Are they checked with the same rigour? I dont think so, in fact before I left last time they were talking about legislation to require the same level of scrutiny of the freight as is required of the pax.

It seems that the whole thing stops at the signature on the parcel are there any dangerous goods in this parcel. Hello??

[aulglarse]

I heard the suspect article/bomb/HOT item/cute toy was a tickle-me-elmo in a box.

Err who's having the last laugh?;)

[Capt Wally]

'guanty' am not surprised at all with what you say.

This lunicy will never stop 'till the terrorists come out & shack the hand of the Presedent of the USA, & even then the world will never again sleep peacefully as long as long as the 'thought' of an attack still exists.
As awful as it sounds they (the terrorists) have won (this round) to some degree. All we can do now is make it damn hard for them to 'play another game' with our minds!:bored:



CW

[poteroo]

bin Laden is an economist. He has been successful beyond his dreams in costing the Western world untold billions of dollars in pointless security.
happy days,

[ballistix71]

Just a quick question from the horde of experts on the topic. How many of you have actually had dangerous goods (tranport and loading, not just carriage) courses and how many of you have actually had bomb threat and search training?

The only thing of concern for this is the time period taken at the airport to get the suspect package dealt with. The comments about the package itself realistically are uneducated. Without being the person who found the package how can you actually know what the deal was with it or why it was considered suspect.

If any of you have read the news about the bombing of the office in Adelaide (around 10yrs ago or so) you may have found out that the package was the size of a video tape.

Unfortunately the threat of improvised devices is actually real and usually not from sources such as Bin Laden. It could easily have been some disgruntled employee that placed it there, because they are pissed off at having to pay a bond on their aircraft for their new job *tongue is cheek comment btw*

It's hard to accept that we who work in an industry that accepts basically a zero tolerance on accidents then gob off about such things as suspect packages.

[myshoutcaptain]

anyone know why the fed's had pax lined up against the fence today at NJS? they were everywhere!

[the wizard of auz]

could have been checking orifices for suspect packages?????.

[bilbert]

Do they need a reason?

[myshoutcaptain]

bilbert - apparently not.
:ugh: