I COULD HAVE PUT A BOMB ON A RYANAIR JET
MoS man gets baggage handler job – with NO criminal or background check
PLANES flying to Ireland from Stansted are at risk from terror attacks because of shocking security lapses at the airport’s baggage handling firm, a Mail on Sunday investigation reveals today.
An undercover reporter was given access to the holds of Ryanair planes at Stansted Airport, the main London hub for the airline’s flights to Ireland and the rest of the world.
Our investigator Abul Taher was left unguarded as he loaded dozens of buggies transporting luggage to planes waiting to take off with hundreds of passengers on board.
He warned: ‘If I had been a terrorist, intent on bringing down a plane, the “airside” security pass I was issued with, without any background checks or even an interview, would have been a licence to kill on a catastrophic scale.
‘I clambered into the holds of Ryanair flights… just feet from the fuel tanks and undercarriage, which minutes later would be passing over heavily populated areas.’
SHOCKING failures in airport security that could allow terrorists plant bombs and smuggle deadly weapons on board passenger jets flying to Ireland have been exposed by a Mail on Sunday investigation. An undercover reporter gained a job as a baggage handler at Stansted Airport, the main London hub for Ryanair flights to Ireland, giving him easy access to aircraft holds and high-security areas, with no criminal record or background checks being made.
Within days of applying for the job our investigator, Abul Taher, was issued with a temporary ‘airside’ security pass that allowed him to be unsupervised in the hold of several Ryanair passenger jets.
Even though strict rules say he should have been chaperoned at all times, our reporter was left unguarded while he loaded dozens of buggies transporting luggage to planes waiting to take off with hundreds of passengers on board – if he was a terrorist, he could easily have hidden an explosive device in a suitcase with devastating results.
The dangers for passengers flying to Ireland was highlighted by the approach taken by Heathrow and Dublin Airport bosses.
In contrast to Stansted, and other airports, Heathrow views the ‘insider threat’ posed by the airside passes so seriously that they recently tightened the rules. There, applicants for even a temporary pass must first show proof of a clean criminal record, have a security interview and undergo a background check into their past 12 months.
A Dublin Airport Authority spokesman told the MoS that all staff – including baggage handlers – are rigorously screened.
He said: ‘All baggage handlers at the airport firstly have to have an airside pass, for which there is a screening process and they have to be Garda vetted to have that pass issued. Every single time they arrive for work they have to go through the normal screening process, the same as passengers. All staff also have to have a specific reason for being on site.’
However, as he reveals in his chilling account below, Abul Taher was able to roam freely around areas of Stansted Airport off-limits to passengers, even though his background had not been vetted and he had not even been interviewed.
Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has launched an investigation into our findings.
Taher wasn’t even interviewed for the £8.80-an-hour job at Stansted – which is the UK’s designated anti-hijacking centre, to where any hijacked aircraft is diverted. Ten days after beginning full-time work at Stansted, Taher called the firm to check the progress of his criminal record check, to be told: ‘We haven’t even started that yet.’
The MoS launched its investigation after being tipped off by an industry whistleblower claiming that airport staff shortages were, in some cases, leading to glaring security failings.
He said that baggage handlers and other staff at airports other than Stansted, including Gatwick and Manchester, are being issued with temporary security passes without proper background checks being made – putting the public at grave risk.
ABUL’S CHILLING ACCOUNT...
THERE was no interview, my references were entirely fake and no one had checked my criminal record, yet there I was crouching inside the hold of a Ryanair passenger jet in the high-security zone of an airport.
If I had been a terrorist, intent on bringing down a plane, the ‘airside’ security pass I was issued with – without any checks on my background – would have been a licence to kill on a catastrophic scale.
It would have been simple to plant a Lockerbie-style device inside the small mountain of luggage in the hold of flight FR2136 bound for Rzeszow, Poland, as it sat minutes from take-off at Stansted, packed with more than 100 passengers.
The alarming ease with which I was able to get a job in such a sensitive security area without proper vetting was all the more shocking because of the lack of supervision I was subject to once inside the airport. Strict Department for Transport rules, enforced by the CAA, state workers with a temporary 60-day pass like mine should always be supervised. But I was left alone several times – the perfect opportunity for a terrorist to strike in a secure area.
I clambered into the holds of Ryanair flights bound for destinations all over the world, just a few feet from highly vulnerable parts of the aircraft, such as the fuel tanks and undercarriage, which minutes later would be passing over heavily populated areas of Essex and London.
Three weeks earlier, when I applied for a job as a baggage handler at Stansted, which handles 20million passengers a year, I was assured I would be thoroughly vetted. The online advert posted by a recruitment firm stated there would be a ‘criminal record check’