UK bomb scare casts fresh doubts over airport security
Airport security is unlikely to be relaxed after it emerged one of two bombs discovered on cargo planes last week had flown on passenger aircraft before being found.
Qatar Airlines has confirmed that a parcel bomb discovered in Dubai was carried on two passenger aircraft before being found by security staff.
A second bomb was found on Friday at East Midlands Airport. Both bombs are believed to have been inserted into printer cartridges on UPS flights from Yemen to the US, addressed to synagogues in the Chicago area.
Prime Minister David Cameron said the device found in Britain was designed to go off on the aircraft, but it is not known whether it would have exploded over the UK or America. It was not initially picked up by explosive detectors at the airport but was found following a tip off from Saudi Arabian intelligence to MI5.
Cobra, the UK government’s emergency planning committee, is meeting today to discuss the plot and air transport implications. Ironically, the bomb scare comes just days after calls from the airline industry to relax security at UK airports.
Lord Carlile, who reviews the Government’s anti-terrorism legislation, told the BBC: "The one weakness I would identify from what we must regard as a success in recent days is that the technical equipment used at East Midlands Airport apparently did not detect the explosives at the first attempt."
He said there was a "weakness" in the international freight system and security provisions should apply not just at the point of departure but at every transit hub and at the point of arrival.
Home Secretary Theresa May told BBC’s Andrew Marr show: "We are going to be looking at the security that we adopt in relation to freight. We will be talking to the industry about those measures."
Yemeni police yesterday released student Hanan al-Samawi, 22, who was arrested on suspicion of sending the packages. A shipping agent said she was not the same person who signed the shipping documents.
According to BBC reports, the student was traced through a telephone number left with the cargo company. Her mother was also detained.
Reports in the US are claiming security chiefs have named a Saudi-born bombmaker, Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, as their prime suspect.
By Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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