- Sputnik International
World
Get the latest news from around the world, live coverage, off-beat stories, features and analysis.

Journalist Tells Sputnik About Security Flaws at 'World's Safest Airport'

© AP Photo / Ariel SchalitIsraeli police officers walk through Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv , Israel
Israeli police officers walk through Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv , Israel - Sputnik International
Subscribe
Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport often boasts that it is one of the world's safest, but Israeli journalist David Suleiman told Sputnik that these assertions hold no water.

Russian Airbus A321 passenger airliner crash site in Egypt - Sputnik International
Egypt Reviewing Terrorist Act in Russian A321 Plane Crash Over Sinai
In an interview with Sputnik, David Suleiman, an investigative journalist from Israel, pointed to a whole array of security lapses at what is currently being touted as one of the world's safest airports; in order to reach his findings, he posed as a man looking for employment at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport.

The interview came after the worst aviation disaster in Russian history; Russia-operated Airbus A321 was brought down by terrorist explosives en route from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg in October 2015, killing all 224 people on board. 

Daesh (ISIS/ISIL), which is outlawed in Russia and many other countries, claimed responsibility for planting bombs inside soft-drink cans on board the aircraft.

Suleiman claims that in the wake of the tragedy he "had an idea to see if I could enter the plane and place 'bombs' inside cans [of soft drinks] in order to emulate the bombing, claimed by Daesh, of the Russian airliner." 

"My goal was to check whether there are security flaws at Ben Gurion Airport, believed to be one of the safest airports in the world.  And I managed to find these flaws," he said.

He also said that he was able to plant fake bombs on 9 passenger planes at the airport while working as a cleaner using his friend's ID.

Notably, he was not challenged when he presented his friend's ID card as his own, even though Suleiman said that they did not look very much alike.

"I was scared of being uncovered immediately, but everything proved to be very easy and quickly right from the start," he said.

Russian Airbus A321 passenger airliner crash site in Egypt - Sputnik International
Cairo, Moscow Ties Unaffected by Russian A321 Crash Over Sinai
According to him, after he was hired as a sanitation worker he had access to the airport's sterile areas, including aircraft, where he eventually managed to plant fake bombs without undergoing a security check. Needless to say, he was amazed to realize the fact that he had never been discovered.

Earlier, it was reported that Daesh had allegedly staged a terrorist attack on board the Russian plane using a can of Schweppes Gold (a soft drink) as an improvised explosive device with a detonator.

In late January, media reports suggested that Russian security services had identified an Egyptian airport employee as the perpetrator of the A321 explosion over the Sinai Peninsula.

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала