Faulty airport detector discovered at Heathrow
Up to 100 passengers were waved through an airport metal detector which was not working at the world’s busiest international airport, it emerged today.
The blunder, at Heathrow Airport’s Terminal Four, was not spotted for about 20 minutes.
Two staff were suspended following the discovery at the terminal, which serves a range of European and international destinations, although they have since returned to work.
UK airport operator BAA insisted the failure of the archway metal detector did not pose a “significant” security risk.
A spokesman said: “An archway metal detector was not working for a short period of time while awaiting maintenance.
“The detector is one of seven at Terminal Four and was used to screen a small number of passengers over a period of a few minutes on Saturday morning.
“Many of these passengers would have been subject to hand searches.
“The fault with the detector would not have been apparent to any passenger wishing to exploit a weakness and as such did not pose a significant security risk.”
He added that steps have now been taken to ensure such an incident does not happen again.
“The matter was investigated and the fault with the detector has now been rectified,” he said.
“Steps are in place to ensure that there is no repeat.”
