THE UNITED KINGDOM
G4S Airport Security in the UK
Scalpels, Not Mints: G4S Airport Security Failures
UNITED KINGDOM--Traveler Dianne Hall carried three scalpels through G4S security and onto an airplane, according to the BBC. Hall says she forgot to remove the scalpels, which her husband uses in his sign-making business, from her purse before traveling from Doncaster's Robin Hood Airport to Jersey. G4S security officers told her there was an "unidentified solid object" in her bag. When Hall suggested that it might be a tin of mints she’d bought in the US, the G4S security officer looked at the mints and waved her through.
"I couldn't believe it. They didn't even look through the bag,” Hall told reporters.
This is not the first time G4S has come under fire for its failure to protect airplane passengers. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, 41 people who lost family members sued Argenbright, then a G4S subsidiary, over its screening practices. G4S’s record of protecting the public in the UK and abroad is increasingly spotty; it has also come under fire for failures in its electronic monitoring of prisoners and prison management in the UK, and for security breaches at nuclear power plants and other sensitive installations in the US.
In addition to providing security at several airports in the UK, including London’s Heathrow, G4S provides airport security in numerous other countries, including Greece, South Africa, Germany, and the Netherlands.
More Press >> Woman reveals scalpel alert September 11, 2006 Scarborough Evening News
Robin Hood security alert September 14, 2006 Sheffield Today