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Film shows security precautions ineffective { November 2006 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-12-21T132138Z_01_L21742419_RTRUKOC_0_US-FRANCE-AIRPORT-SECURITY.xml&src=rss&rpc=22http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-12-21T132138Z_01_L21742419_RTRUKOC_0_US-FRANCE-AIRPORT-SECURITY.xml&src=rss&rpc=22
French film raises fresh fears over airport safety
Thu Dec 21, 2006 8:22 AM ET
PARIS (Reuters) - A French television reporter managed to smuggle explosive material and knives onto American and French passenger planes apparently revealing serious flaws in security at French airports.
Appearing in a documentary made for state television due to be aired on Friday, the reporter has raised fresh questions about French air safety after accusations last month that it was too easy to gain access to aircraft at Paris' main airport.
Reporter Laurent Richard, aided by security expert Christophe Naudin, used hidden cameras to show themselves carrying "de-activated" Semtex explosive and a detonator in their hand luggage aboard an Air France flight to Nice.
On another occasion, the pair carried two box cutters aboard a Delta airlines flight from Paris to New York, with security staff not looking at their screens as the weapons passed through the x-ray machines.
Box cutters were used by the hijackers in the September 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities.
The film also shows the duo packing a Semtex-like substance in their luggage, which was subsequently put into the hold of a domestic French flight despite x-ray checks on the suitcase.
Richard said the substance could not have exploded but had the same chemical characteristics of the plastic explosive Semtex, and should, in theory, have been detected.
Air France and French airport authorities declined immediate comment ahead of Friday's screening.
Richard is also filmed driving a truck into a supposedly secure area of Paris's main Roissy airport, passing three check points by simply showing his driving license and finishing up just a few meters (feet) from a parked aircraft.
All the security breaches were made over the past month.
In November, a union representing Paris airport workers said a film apparently showing a block of clay being smuggled on to an aircraft demonstrated how easy it would be for terrorists to get plastic explosives onto a plane.
Airport security, which underwent a fundamental transformation after September 11, 2001, returned to the media spotlight in August when British police said they had foiled a plot to blow up aircraft flying to the United States.
© Reuters 2006.
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