Major Security Vulnerabilities Uncovered At Frankfurt Airport

jones_supa writes "According to a report published in this Sunday's edition of the mass-circulation Bild am Sonntag newspaper, investigators sent by the European Commission found it surprisingly easy to smuggle banned items past security at Frankfurt Airport. It said undercover investigators posing as passengers were able to smuggle weapons or other dangerous items through security every second time they tried to do so. One of the biggest problems was improperly trained staff, who were often not able to recognize dangerous items when viewing the screens they use to look at x-ray images of baggage. The staff is sourced via a privately owned service provider. Germany's Federal Police said they introduced new measures immediately after learning of the security deficits to ensure that passenger safety was guaranteed. Fraport AG, the company that operates the Germany's biggest airport, also took the findings seriously and begun an operation to retrain a total of 2,500 workers."

Comments

You'd think they'd have learned

[Chrisq]

Frankfurt is where they think the Lockerbie bomb got into the baggage system. You'd think they would have learned.

Re:Security at FRA

[geogob]

I don't assume anything... I just observe.
What I observe is that pretty much the same people (from the same security firm) screen my luggage at the airport and my bag before I get into a night club. I don't like it a clubs, but accept it. But I find it close to unacceptable at airports. I've seen a lot of incompetence, lack of respect and abuse of power at German airports (especially at FRA).

In Canadian airports, the pre-boarding screening is also partly done by private firms. The situation is hardly better. I've seen a huge difference in handling there as well. Most of the time its is very professional and the standards of CATSA at obviously higher than by the Bundespolizei. I think that a major difference, is the the on-site oversight remains under the control of the CATSA in Canada, whereas in Germany, the Bundespolizei is only there for show. They just stand there (if at all), but don't seem to supervise the screening activities. This observation may be wrong, as we, as passenger, hardly know what goes on behind the curtain, but it would explain the service quality in both countries although but employ private firms.

I couldn't care less about the screening itself; it beings little more than the feeling something is done for security for those who somehow need that feeling. What I do care about is how my belongings and myself are handled in the screening process, what ever that process may be.