Door at airport goes berserk, crushing border officer and OAP

A SUSPECTED vaccine spill caused a major security alert at Glasgow Airport yesterday. An exclusion zone was placed around a KLM aircraft while a ‘volatile package’ was investigated.

Emergency services discovered it was only ice around containers of vaccine which had burst and the delayed flight was allowed to leave.

A police spokesman said: ‘Following the examination of the cargo package, we can now confirm it has been deemed safe and there are no suspicious circumstances.’ A BORDER Force officer who was injured while she tried to protect a pensioner who had been hit by a security door has won £5,000 in damages.

Suzanne Toner was on duty at Glasgow Airport’s customs hall monitoring arriving passengers.

She was working with a colleague when a traveller walking through the area’s ‘blue channel’ was hit by a security door.

Monica Cooper, 78, was knocked to the ground, suffering a serious head wound that was bleeding heavily.

The doors continued to open and close on the helpless pensioner as she lay on the floor, so Mrs Toner protected her while she was being moved.

She suffered injuries to her upper back and left side of her body as the doors repeatedly hit her.

The doors had a so-called ‘RAID’ mode which is designed to make them repeatedly attempt to close if triggered by an incident. They were operated from a control room and could not be overridden by staff on the scene.

Mrs Cooper was eventually removed from danger before being taken to hospital by ambulance on November 12, 2014.

Mrs Toner launched a claim for loss, injury and damage against Glasgow Airport, alleging they had shown negligence.

Scotland’s personal injury court awarded her £5,085 following a hearing before Sheriff Robert Fife.

The court heard that the security doors were installed in September 2014 and had previously been involved in incidents where people had been hit by them.

Border Force staff had warned airport bosses the doors were likely to cause an accident but no action was taken.

Glasgow Airport had defended the claim and argued Mrs Toner had put herself in harm’s way while assisting Mrs Cooper and could have helped without injuring herself.

But Sheriff Fife ruled that she had been acting as a ‘rescuer’ and was entitled to damages.

His written judgment detailed the accident. He said: ‘Mrs Toner was about three metres [10ft] away when she was first made aware of the incident. She ran and positioned herself between the passenger and the door. She knelt down beside the passenger. The passenger had hit her head, there was a lot of blood.’

Sheriff Fife said that Mrs Toner spoke to the pensioner, who was still conscious, and told her not to move.

He said she had only basic first aid awareness and that her main objective was to make sure the passenger was all right.

The sheriff’s judgment concluded: ‘The incident was reasonably foreseeable.

‘Between the system going live and the incident on November 12, 2014, the defenders took no steps to review the assessment of risk that the doors might cause harm when in RAID mode and to identify and put in place appropriate and reasonable control measures to prevent that harm.’

Sheriff Fife added: ‘The doors could have been positioned in front of the partition and been more visible. Border Force staff could have been issued with wireless remote controls to control the doors locally.

‘A function pad could have been fitted to the doors airside. The defenders focused on security and not the safe operation of the doors. There was a failure by the defenders to take reasonable care.’