'Bomb alert' closes part of Munich Airport

[raffele]

Apparently an explosives test gave a positive ID and the passenger in question fled the scene

BBC News - Bomb alert closes part of Germany's Munich airport (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8470954.stm)

[gofer]

News reporting on German TV that there is a security scare due to a PC that caused problems at a checkpoint and the owner ran away. All flights currently delayed !
Better safe than sorry.
:ugh:
München: Passagier legt Teil des Flughafens lahm | Aktuell | BR (http://www.br-online.de/aktuell/muenchen-flughafen-alarm-ID1264005924921.xml)

[bri21]

According to the BBC report the runner "might have been in a hurry to catch his plane".

If true, that's in "The Dog Ate My Homework" genre of schoolboy excuses. And in some places not a handful of miles from here the runner could have been shot. As in dead. :cool:

[Dysag]

I wonder if he had time to put back his shoes and belt. It shouldn't be too difficult to spot a shoeless sprinter with his pants around his knees.

[Morane]

Hi

last time I was in MUC (MAY 2009), I could leave my shoes on.

Joe

[Frosch]

Who said he ran or sprinted? The media? The guys staring at the screen trying to figure out what the multicolor picture showed?

Maybe the guy just took his belongings and walked off. Easy to imagine knowing the situation in Terminal 2.

Of course, a "sprinting suspect" is more likely to give an overall picture to the public which allows the security staff to keep their job. Or at least their face.
Any surveillance video-scenes shown already?

".... and now to those bodyscanners. We should buy some and trap those air-traveling suspects until their laptops and pubic hair is screened...... "

[hetfield]

Now the Germans are going mad as well......

[sTeamTraen]

Of course, a "sprinting suspect" is more likely to give an overall picture to the public which allows the security staff to keep their job. Or at least their face.

I recall that on 22 July 2005 we were all told that Jean-Charles de Menezes had vaulted the barrier at Stockwell tube station while being pursued by police, wearing a big padded jacket with all wires sticking out and everything.

Only later did we discover that he had a ticket, walked calmly on to the train, dressed completely normally for the time of year. But of course by then he'd been shot in the head 7 times, so someone had to try and cover it up.

[RevMan2]

This thread is trivialising a massive security shortcoming, namely that - despite the fact that hand luggage is flagged as requiring a secondary inspection due to explosive residues - a passenger can retrieve that item, disappear into the crowd and possibly BOARD ONE OF THE FIVE FLIGHTS THAT PUSHED BACK, TAXIED AND DEPARTED between the alarm being raised and effective measures being taken.

The politicians are of course all spouting the usual "body scanners wouldn't have made a difference wuggawuggawugga more staff wuggawuggawugga minor shortcomings in procedures", but this incident strips away the paper-thin veneer from the fact that there appears to be no effective response scenario for serious security breaches.

The latest reports say that the passenger did not "flee the scene" and perhaps he really DID think that his processing was finished, but 2 questions remained unanswered:

How can a passenger retrieve items that are flagged for a secondary screen with no intervention from security staff?

Why was there no immediate security response?

Unfortunately, this fits the pattern of my MUC experiences:

I saw an orphaned bag on the platform at the underground station at the airport, loudly called out for an owner (being mocked for my efforts in the process, despite the fact that domestic terrorists were at the time on trial for attempted crimes similar in target and scope), informed the police and WAITED 20 MINUTES until 2 officers sauntered down and did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, allowing trains to enter the station and discharge their passengers to mill around a potentially dangerous object.

We've all smirked at the headless chicken TSA approach and been appalled by the Jean-Charles de Menezes incident, but an appropriate response wouldn't be out of place in these times.

Just in case it's the real thing.

As the Royal Marines say : Train hard, fight easy. Train easy, fight hard, die

[yetmoreSLF]

This thread is trivialising a massive security shortcoming, namely that - despite the fact that hand luggage is flagged as requiring a secondary inspection due to explosive residues - a passenger can retrieve that item, disappear into the crowdI fly regularly through T2 at MUC and I can completely understand how this happened.

When the guys at security decide to do an explosive residues test on part of your hand luggage, they explain this in German (did this passenger actually speak German and understand what they said to him??) you simply stand around by the x-ray belt/table with all the other passengers collecting their screened luggage. You're even allowed to repack the laptop/camera/whatever into your hand baggage. There is no "area" you are led off to, they don't move your item(s) to a different part of the belt/table - so especially if you don't speak (perfect) German of course there's a risk you think screening is finished.

[gofer]

The whole process is - at least at most airports - an insult to security and common sense, but as my wise 91 year old mother would tell you "common sense is NOT common, it is very very rare".

The full body scan I can understand as it solves a lot of the current weaknesses for things carried on the body.

Concerning hand carried items, I personally can not understand why my papers and boarding pass are not taken with the hand luggage and only handed back after ALL items have been cleared, especially a PC! My passport and boarding pass should have been checked as valid and a likeness beforehand of course.

Should such a runaway occur security has a likeness (if the forgot to run a video of the area!) if they are doing a good job.

Further common sense things would be:

a) reduce the number of people in the airport building by only letting pax into the building (1st security check against ID and booking).
b) at that time do a facial scan / retina scan matched to the ID being used and the booking document - finger print scan also if so desired.
c) one could consider passing all this data sorted by allocated seat to the arrival airport - News for free seating airlines (forget it - and get programming).
d) 2nd security check is issue of boarding card if not already issued
e) 3rd check at the hand luggage / scan check
f) 4th check at the gate
g) 5th check if so desired by airline, at aircraft entry !