Journalist smuggles ‘bomb’ onto aircraft at Schiphol
February 7, 2008
Journalist Alberto Stegeman has succeeded in placing a fake bomb at Schiphol on a plane to Egypt. He says he has demonstrated that security at the Amsterdam airport is lax.
Stegeman did over three months of research for the programme Undercover in the Netherlands, to be broadcast by SBS6 on Sunday. A fellow-journalist got a job as apron personnel via a temps bureau. He slipped through security for months with bags full of fake drugs and was not checked up on once in all this time.
Next, Stegeman himself put on the work clothes of his colleague. Disguised as an apron worker, with the access pass of the real staff member, he succeeded in smuggling the fake bomb through the security at Schiphol. His colleague put the fake bomb in the cargo hold of a plane flying to the Egyptian capital of Cairo.
“If I had been a member of al-Qaeda, I could easily have blown up that aircraft with 226 people on board. Without anyone ever discovering that I was behind it,” according to Stegeman.
“Passengers feel safe because all baggage is checked by the 2,500 security staff walking around there. But it is illusory safety, as the ground personnel can go in and out unhindered every day. The thousands of personnel do not once have to go through a detection gate.”
Schiphol responded: “We do not give any information about security. The airport complies with European regulations. We were only recently checked on this; everything was then in order,” according to spokesman Gerbrant Corbee.
Source: NIS News, 7 February 2008
I think as far as security measures are concerned, the more we are introducing new technologies to this field more we will be secure from the criminals like this.