Confusion over security breach at Frankfurt airport
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Confusion over security breach at Frankfurt airport
Reuters Company News
Confusion over security breach at Frankfurt airport
Friday September 27, 10:09 am ET
By Peter Wuebben
(Writes through with airport, border police comment)
FRANKFURT, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Two armed men were stopped trying to board a German plane bound for Tel Aviv last week, an airline official said on Friday, but the government said the men might have been undercover agents conducting a security test.
German national airline Lufthansa (Frankfurt:LHAG.F - News) reported one of its security officials said he had caught the men trying to get on the plane as it was being prepared for departure to Israel at Frankfurt airport last Saturday.
"We believe our employee and are taking the matter very seriously," Lufthansa spokesman Thomas Jachnow said. He said Lufthansa had laid charges against the unidentified men who have apparently since disappeared.
A spokesman for the Transport Ministry told a regular government news conference he believed the incident was a routine test, although he did not know whether the men were airport police officers or some other security officials.
"One of the men in question had a knife and the other one a toy gun," the spokesman said, adding that such tests had become more frequent since the September 11 suicide hijackings.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily said Lufthansa had averted a possible hijacking. It said the men, who appeared to be Arabs, aroused suspicion by trying to avoid a final security check at the bottom of the airplane steps.
The report said the Lufthansa security official, using a hand-held metal detector, found a knife taped to one man's lower leg and a gun concealed on the waist of the other man.
When the weapons were found, the men said they were carrying out a routine security test. But while unarmed officials tried to confirm this by telephone, they drove off across the runway in a car with airport plates accompanied by two other men, according to the newspaper.
The Transport Ministry spokesman said: "All I can say is that it would be unrealistic that these men show police identity cards, get back into the car and disappear if they had wanted to hijack a plane."
The Transport Ministry later said it could not confirm that the incident had indeed been a test, but said that it was investigating the case.
German border police at Frankfurt airport said they had not been involved in any security test last Saturday, nor had they been informed of any such operation being carried out by other security officials.
But they also cast doubt on suggestions that the incident was a foiled hijacking. "Nobody can confirm what the (Lufthansa) security official said. It is unlikely that such a thing happened," a police spokesman said.
Frankfurt airport operator Fraport (XETRA:FRAG.DE - News) said it had notified the appropriate agencies at the time of the incident to ask whether a test was being conducted. All of them had said no.
A Fraport spokesman said investigations were under way to clear up whether the incident actually occurred: "We don't know if it happened. ... It hasn't been proven." (with additional reporting by Jeff Mason in Frankfurt)
Does anybody have anything more?
Confusion over security breach at Frankfurt airport
Friday September 27, 10:09 am ET
By Peter Wuebben
(Writes through with airport, border police comment)
FRANKFURT, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Two armed men were stopped trying to board a German plane bound for Tel Aviv last week, an airline official said on Friday, but the government said the men might have been undercover agents conducting a security test.
German national airline Lufthansa (Frankfurt:LHAG.F - News) reported one of its security officials said he had caught the men trying to get on the plane as it was being prepared for departure to Israel at Frankfurt airport last Saturday.
"We believe our employee and are taking the matter very seriously," Lufthansa spokesman Thomas Jachnow said. He said Lufthansa had laid charges against the unidentified men who have apparently since disappeared.
A spokesman for the Transport Ministry told a regular government news conference he believed the incident was a routine test, although he did not know whether the men were airport police officers or some other security officials.
"One of the men in question had a knife and the other one a toy gun," the spokesman said, adding that such tests had become more frequent since the September 11 suicide hijackings.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily said Lufthansa had averted a possible hijacking. It said the men, who appeared to be Arabs, aroused suspicion by trying to avoid a final security check at the bottom of the airplane steps.
The report said the Lufthansa security official, using a hand-held metal detector, found a knife taped to one man's lower leg and a gun concealed on the waist of the other man.
When the weapons were found, the men said they were carrying out a routine security test. But while unarmed officials tried to confirm this by telephone, they drove off across the runway in a car with airport plates accompanied by two other men, according to the newspaper.
The Transport Ministry spokesman said: "All I can say is that it would be unrealistic that these men show police identity cards, get back into the car and disappear if they had wanted to hijack a plane."
The Transport Ministry later said it could not confirm that the incident had indeed been a test, but said that it was investigating the case.
German border police at Frankfurt airport said they had not been involved in any security test last Saturday, nor had they been informed of any such operation being carried out by other security officials.
But they also cast doubt on suggestions that the incident was a foiled hijacking. "Nobody can confirm what the (Lufthansa) security official said. It is unlikely that such a thing happened," a police spokesman said.
Frankfurt airport operator Fraport (XETRA:FRAG.DE - News) said it had notified the appropriate agencies at the time of the incident to ask whether a test was being conducted. All of them had said no.
A Fraport spokesman said investigations were under way to clear up whether the incident actually occurred: "We don't know if it happened. ... It hasn't been proven." (with additional reporting by Jeff Mason in Frankfurt)
Does anybody have anything more?
