Security spat after airport hoax

Kolkata: "There's a bomb planted inside the airport. It can explode anytime." The domestic manager of Kolkata airport received this anonymous phone call at 7.36 pm on Friday. But officers from the NSCBI Airport police station a few metres away from the terminal reached there an hour later.
Thankfully, the call proved to be a hoax, but the tardy reaction to the threat has exposed loopholes in the airport's security cover.
While police claimed airport authorities had not informed them about the call and they got to know about it from their own intelligence sources, airport officials admitted that "procedural" delay was the reason behind police not being informed immediately.
"Even an hour after the manager of the domestic terminal received the call, we had no clue about the threat. Finally, one of our intelligence sources informed us," alleged an officer of NSCBI Airport police station.
Officers claimed that once they rushed to the airport, they found the airport officials in a huddle, still discussing the call and how to handle the situation. "Such a slipshod approach may lead to major problems in future. We immediately started our security drill and followed up on the crank call," said a senior police officer.
Airports Authority of India (AAI) officials admitted that it took time to inform police. "As the threat was inside the airport, we first got in touch with all the security agencies manning the building. This was done on a priority basis as per procedure," said an AAI official.
11/01/10 Arpit Basu/Times of India

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Categories: Airports Jan 2010, Safety Jan 2010