How many times have you walked through security at an airport without being challenged? This happened at Manchester Airport recently. A flight arriving in the early hours landed, the passengers disembarked, and promptly walked straight through border control without being stopped.
No passports were checked and no scans took place, people just walked straight through the unstaffed security points.
This begs a number of questions:
How did this happen? Why did it happen? Could it happen again?
It’s a security flaw!
The flight in question was FR3186 due to arrive in Manchester at 23:35 BST on Friday 17th April. Delayed slightly, the flight didn’t actually arrive until 02.05 BST on Saturday 18th April, and no security officials were present to check passenger details.
Mobile footage taken by passengers on the flight clearly shows people walking with hand luggage right through the security points. Rather worryingly, the vast majority of travellers pass through the checkpoint without being challenged. They amble along, without realising this clear breach of security.
Some of the quicker thinking flyers were quick to spot the glaring error though, including one bewildered passenger who caught the footage on his phone. In the footage you can hear him clearly say, “This is the UK Border and there’s nobody at Passport Control at Manchester Airport”, which sums this security lapse up nicely.
Information system at fault
Officials were quick to blame the airport’s information system for the security slip-up. It would seem the wrong flight details were displayed, triggering a chain of events that ultimately led to the control systems being left unmanned.
It’s shocking news but it shows that mistakes do happen at airports, even in this modern world, when there’s a genuine risk from terror attacks.
This latest breach in security has certainly worried officials at Manchester Airport and the Home Office has stated it’s conducting a full enquiry into the incident.