By Alistair Keely, PA News Low cost airline easyJet apologised to its customers today after 40 aircraft were grounded due to an administrative error.
The no frills airline said the planes were grounded for around two hours early this morning because insurance documents were not placed on the relevant aircraft.
The company said passengers at Luton and Stansted airports were particularly hard hit, while at Newcastle one in six planes were grounded and in Liverpool two in seven planes were affected.
The blunder was discovered at around 6.30 this morning.
A company spokesman said the problem was due to an administrative error. He added: “There was basically an insurance documentation mess up this morning whereby insurance renewal documents were not physically placed on the aircraft.
“Unlike with car insurance the documents have to be physically on the plane for inspection.
“A large number of our aircraft didn’t have that. That led to disruption first thing this morning.”
The spokesman said 40 aircraft were grounded because of the problem but said all planes were now flying normally and the priority was getting delayed and disgruntled passengers to their destination for the Bank Holiday weekend.
He added: “Some people would have been delayed for a couple of hours and we are doing everything we can to minimise the problem. We apologise greatly to anyone affected.”
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Airport Intrusion Shows Security Gap / Case Highlights Lack of Communication Between Police, Haneda Officials (Japan)
The intrusion into restricted areas at Haneda Airport in Tokyo on Wednesday by a man in a passenger car demonstrated a lack of communication between the airport and the Metropolitan Police Department.
Due to the late arrival of the police and a misunderstanding among airport officials, the man was able to get onto one of the runways.
The Construction and Transport Ministry and the MPD should review antiterrorism security measures in place at the airport.
According to Tokyo Airport Police Station, an emergency call was received at 7:11 p.m. from staff members of the airport's east cargo area, who reported a stolen vehicle. The police dispatched officers to the scene, and 13 minutes later, they found the car in front of a police box at the international terminal, driven by Toshiaki Terauchi. Terauchi, 32, ignored the officers' orders to stop and drove through a temporary entrance fence into a restricted area at about 7:25 p.m.
Members of the riot police squad then arrived and told security guards at a gate located about 100 meters from the fence that they needed to enter the restricted area. At about 7:38 p.m., the group was given permission to do so. However, none of the police or the security guards informed the Construction and Transport Ministry's office at the airport of the incident....
After he entered the restricted area, had a wheel came off the car Terauchi was driving. He then commandeered a limousine bus. After he crashed the bus, Terauchi took a safety patrol car.
When the first car had lost its wheel, a security guard stationed nearby called the airport office responsible for security and disaster prevention, but the office sent only one official to the scene, assuming it had been a minor crash.
The office learned that it was an intrusion only after Terauchi took the patrol car. Seven minutes elapsed, during which time seven planes had used the runways. According to the police, an autopsy revealed traces of stimulant drugs in Terauchi's system.
A senior ministry official said, "We never predicted that someone would break through the fences in a car." After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, the airport adopted tighter security measures, mainly focusing on checking for suspicious substances and preventing them from being taken aboard planes and into terminals.
The airport holds annual drills on responding to hijackings. However, drills concerning how to respond to suspicious individuals have not been conducted. The fences surrounding the restricted area were built to resist pressure so that even a large truck would have to ram them repeatedly to break them, but the use of a car was unexpected.
The temporary entrance was a blind spot, and despite its relatively weak structure, no security guards were stationed near it at night.....