Airport security fail one in ten tests on spotting 'weapons'

One in ten "weapons" is missed by security staff at British airports in regular tests of their alertness.

Supervisors ensure that, every 20 minutes, an image of a gun or a knife is superimposed on luggage passing through X-ray screens.

Ian Hutcheson, the director of security at the airports operator BAA, admitted yesterday that in almost 10 per cent of "threat image projection" tests, operators missed the "virtual" weapon.

Mr Hutcheson said: "There is no such thing as 100 per cent security, we are all human beings. Our detection rates are better than anywhere else in the world."

He said there had been no nationally accepted training system for accrediting staff who operated screens, although certification was being introduced in Britain next year.

Mr Hutcheson indicated that the ban on relatively harmless sharp objects, such as tweezers, in hand luggage might be eased. He said there was a review of what objects were regarded as a threat because there was a concern that such items might be distracting personnel from other more important duties.

He indicated there had been mounting resistance among passengers to the strict guidelines over what could be considered potentially dangerous. "People are less understanding than they were just after 11 September," said Mr Hutcheson. But a relaxation of the rules would have to wait until all airliners were fitted with armoured doors to the cockpit.

Asked why passengers were allowed to take glass bottles on board aircraft, he said: "You could use anything as a weapon. You could use your hands to throttle somebody."

More than six million potential weapons have been seized at air security checks since 11 September, he said. About 2,000 sharp-bladed objects and other possibly dangerous items are confiscated at each airport terminal every day. The most common items seized have been scissors, tweezers, corkscrews and nail files. But staff have also confiscated credit card knife kits, flick-knives, bike chains, workmen's tools and knitting needles.

Mr Hutcheson said that, while all baggage was checked at British airports, there were still big airports on the Continent where that was not the case. There are gaps in security at airports in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium and they were not all likely to be covered by a recommended deadline in December. The European Union was expected to make 100 per cent security screening compulsory by 2003.

¿ An investigation was opened yesterday after an undercover television reporter smuggled an imitation gun on to a flight from Heathrow. The replica 9mm semi-automatic pistol was wrapped as a birthday present and taken aboard a flight to Edinburgh in a holdall.