UK airports still vulnerable to terrorism

June 30, 2008
Expert says some security 'weak points' have yet to be addressed

London, June 27 (PTI) A year after Bangalore-resident Kafeel Ahmed rammed an explosive laden jeep into the Glasgow airport, a terrorism expert says British airports continue to be vulnerable to such attacks.

After the attack on June 30 last year, security has been upgraded at airports, but security consultant Chris Yates believes that some weak points were yet to be addressed.

As part of the new security arrangements introduced after the Glasgow attack, cars can no longer drop off passengers outside the main terminal building, which has been fitted with bomb-proof glass.

Yates told the BBC that the policy of not allowing drop-offs in front of terminal buildings was "common sense" and should always have been in place.

He said: "Quite frankly in this day and age we don't know which direction the threats are coming from. To some of us it was always obvious that it was a potential avenue of danger." Yates, however, added that another attack was "entirely possible".

"Terrorist groups look for the weakest links in the chain Always. Quite evidently the strike at Glasgow Airport was a significant weak point for airports and there are very many others," he said.

Yates claimed that the United Kingdom was not taking the threat of "aviation terrorism seriously enough".

"We have a long way to go before airports here in the UK are secure enough to prevent the prospect of another terrorist attack," he added.