Fake Bomb Smuggled Onto Airplane

A Dutch journalist smuggled a fake bomb and drugs onto airliners at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport to demonstrate weaknesses at Europe's fourth-busiest air travel hub, he said on Wednesday.

Alberto Stegeman, an investigative journalist whose report of the security breach was to be broadcast on Dutch television channel SBS 6 on Wednesday, said an associate secured a job at Schiphol as a baggage handler.

"When you work there, you can do anything," Stegeman said.

Stegeman said he used his accomplice's uniform and credentials to smuggle a fake bomb, complete with a digital timer and fake explosive blocks, onto a plane.

Over a three month period, they were also able to take drugs into flight cabins and other areas of planes because gate personnel always let uniformed workers into the cabins.

"It's unbelievable it was that easy," Stegeman said.

A spokesman for Schiphol Airport had no immediate reaction to Stegeman's investigation but said the airport complied fully with European Union regulations on security.

"The EU conducts regular audits and we have been audited in the last few months," the spokesman said.

The Dutch Green Party called for a debate on Wednesday to discuss the breaches at Schiphol, which were reported widely by Dutch media ahead of Stegeman's broadcast. The military police at the airport will also investigate the breach, news agency ANP-Reuters reported.

Last year, Schiphol began using new body-scanning machines at security checkpoints to find metals and explosives hidden under clothing by using harmless radio waves to display head-to-toe images of passengers, as well as staff.

9 February 2008