Posted on 05/08/2008 5:13:21 PM PDT by cardinal4
Two contract security guards at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport were suspended in the wake of Wednesday's security breach in which a man slipped past a vehicle checkpoint and was found sleeping on a plane.
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Another security screw up..
ping
I used to work there at Lambert Airport for several years & was with a private security firm [APS] and had worked a lot of differnt pirmeter gates. And I have something to say/questions.
1] Did this person have proper airport id, if not
2] where was his escort from the company at that gat at and
3] why was this person left alone in an aircraft.
The policy was/is that once a person has gone through a gate either with & or with out an escort, that person is no longer under control of the security officer. the security officer is NOT allowed to leave the gate area to check on anybody, who has gone through. That means even if that person has even run through the gate without authorization. The security officer, is then to contact the airport PD via his radio or phone line to notify them of a security problem, then the Airport PD were to come and deal with the problem, NOT the S/O.
This may end up falling back on the regional airline who work out of that gate & not the security personel or airport pd officers...
He did not have escort, he snuck through the exit gate across the street from the Air Wing. He then walked damn near a mile to where I told the crew to park. He was in full view of the cameras and no one saw a thing. Maintenance went to move the plane and bring it to the gate for a 0600 departure. Thats when he was discovered. There is plenty blame to go around here. Yet only the guards are taking the heat. Not those who acknowledged seeing him on the cameras, nor was he challenged or spotted by the police. It was a colossal screw up, that no one will admit.
No escort because he was homeless, and he just walked onto the aircraft to sleep. No one brought him there, he was there quite illegally.
If my memory serves me right that is/was vehicle gate 6S.
Which security comapny is doing the “job” at the outside check points?
When I was there in the early 90’s we were a real hard charging bunch, but only 3 of us were allowed to carry “cuffs” for such a thing. I even had the FAA security guys afraid of me, after I pulled one out of his car after showing me 2 different id’s with different pictures on them. And I did the cuff & stuff on him till the Airport PD Security guys showed up and rescued him from me... lol Was the gate even maned at the time? More to ask when I get some more questions...
Send me your resume. Our company needs someone to deal with the FAA! I'd curious to know if we know some of the same Feds. Yes the gate was manned. Two guards were searching a vehicle entering and the guy slipped on the field by going through the exit. The company's name is Whelan. They will be updating their security manuals now..
as far as dealing with the faa, all you have to do is take the military approach to guard duty, [ie This is MY post, and there is me & then there is GOD, & HE needs MY permission to be here! ect... You get the idea on how to deal with it.] You need to put everyone in there place and NOT back down to anyone or thing!
The best guys for this type of detail is former military guys, rough & tumble, take NO crap off of anybody types. MARINES & some Army types are good for this, I have found most Navy & Air Force are not up to the task of holding down a high pressure security post.
BTW, if one guy was checking out a vehicle, where was the second guy? He should be providing cover & watching the area of the post for any type of diversion & or problem..This sounds like piss poor training & guidance from the top down in the security co. on this, but the buck does stop at the airport security ops center as well. They have over all operational say so on ALL posts there.
BTW I was usually the guy that got called for the snow gate, that gate by Fed Ex. VIP operations [to include 3 Presidentail details, the former PM of Japan, and several sports teams & 1 accident where I had to go out to an air craft mishap and stand guard over the remains of 2 pilots in a private air craft after they were involved in a runway mishap, and the gate over by the ANG base with the F15's & few others to boot. I had received about 10 atta-boys from the air port for the way I handled my posts.
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