“PROUD” bosses at Manchester Airport are to throw a staff party and hand out £75,000 in gift vouchers to celebrate the way the terror alert was handled earlier this month.

Around 750 security and customer service staff will each be given a £100 gift voucher to spend at airport shops to reward their “professionalism and dedication”.

And they will be invited to a planned ‘thank you’ bash along with their families at the end of September.

Passengers faced check-in delays on August 10 after the government announced stringent new restrictions on hand luggage to tackle an alleged terror plot targeting flights to the USA.

But travellers at Manchester Airport were not as badly affected as those at Heathrow and Gatwick.

A woman was taken into custody after driving onto the runway of an airport here Tuesday afternoon, police said.Local police are questioning the woman, whose name was not immediately disclosed, on suspicion of trespassing. The incident forced the airport administration office to close the runway for some 30 minutes, delaying a flight from Nagoya.

At about 11:45 a.m., a car sneaked onto the grounds of Ohibiro Airport and drove back and forth across the runway before coming to a halt at one end, investigators said. Airport workers apprehended the woman driving the car and handed her over to police officers.

The car sneaked into the airport through a cargo entrance that was left open and made its way onto the runway from Japan Airlines’ cargo storage facility, airport officials said.

QANTAS is to test new technology allowing passengers to use their mobile phones and personal digital assistants during flights.

Company spokeswoman Lesley Grant said the three-month trial from early next year will be tested on Boeing 767 plying domestic routes.

“Qantas will be one of the first airlines in the world to offer this service,” Ms Grant said.

Ms Grant said the trial follows strong demand from customers, especially for email access by business travelers.

Protocols for using mobiles in-flight would be developed during the trial, Ms Grant said.

Until now phones have been banned because the devices can interfere with navigation equipment, with the new technology developed with Telstra, Panasonic and AeroMobile.

If it wasn’t already assumed, most US flights out of Manchester now have armed guards aboard. Every flight now has a team of undercover federal air marshals. Their job is to stop terrorists from taking over or destroying airlines.

There has been controversy over the introduction of air marshals. Members of the British Airline Pilots’ Association threatened to strike over the issue three years ago.

Air Carriers in the United Kingdom may soon be switching their “No Smoking” signs for “No Mobiles” very soon. Airlines are looking for ways to control annoying on-board cell phone chit-chat that force passengers to switch their cell phones off during take-off and landing, as well as during designated “night” periods.

This idea sounds like a great one to me! There is nothing worse than trying to get some sleep on a long flight, only to have the guy next to you talking loudly on his cell phone to his work buddy about the awesome time they had at the company retreat.

The 15,000 people who work at Pierre Elliot Trudeau International Airport near Montreal are really feeling the strain under the tight new security policies. Transport Canada now stipulates passengers and people who work at the Quebec airport may not take liquids, gels, or aerosols past security checkpoints.

This means that anyone who works past a security checkpoint has to settle for coffee or water from the water fountains for their lunch, something that does not make many workers very happy.

Transport Canada spokesperson Vanessa Vermette states that the rules are clear. No liquids past security checkpoints are allowed.

Transport Canada imposed a partial ban on liquids August 10 in response to a transatlantic airplane bomb plot foiled by British authorities that day.

A bomb alert in an airport terminal in West Virginia, USA turned out to be a false alarm as subsequent tests on suspect liquids did not show the presence of explosives. Earlier the airport terminal in Huntington was evacuated after two bottles of liquid found in the carry-bag of a woman of Pakistani origin tested positive for explosives and bomb sniffing dogs reacted positively to them, officials said.

The woman, who has not yet been identified, was questioned by FBI but was not arrested. The suspect’s bottles would be moved to a remote area by a robot where attempts would be made to detonate them and experts would conduct chemical tests to find out the nature of the contents, officials said. Screeners at the Tri-State Airport in Huntington found four items containing liquid out of which two tested positive, officials said. A canine team also got a positive hit for explosives, they added.

The flight in which the woman was to go was allowed to take off but about 100 passengers and employees were evacuated as police conducted the investigations. Reports said one screener noticed a bottle in the carry-on bag of the woman who was preparing to board the flight to Charlotte in North Carolina after the regular security check. The machine which detects explosives gave positive results in the case of two samples. The woman had a one-way ticket to Detroit vita Charlotte, an official said. He said the 28-year-old woman was originally from Pakistan but had moved to Huntington from Jackson, Michigan. Her identification papers showed she was born in 1978.

The US administration has banned carrying liquids into flights ever since the London police foiled a plot to blow up transatlantic flights coming into the United States using liquid explosives.

Souce: http://www.business-standard.com/

As airport security tightens up after botched attempts to bring liquid explosives onto British planes, a new technology is being utliized to detour anyone from trying to sneak anything onto planes. This new scan and virtual see right through your clothes and find anything you may be hiding on your person.

It does this so well infact that the scan will reveal a persons naked body on the screen for airpot security.

At the moment British Airports are using the new scanners in private rooms, one for men, and one for women, with same sex airport staff operating the equipment on a voluteer basis.

Reports say many people are taking the scan over an old fashion pat down. Meanwhile others are call the new machine a major invasion of privacy.
See the Full Virtual Strip Search Story

The US Department of Homeland Security is now requiring all passenger data to be sent to US authorities before any flights are allowed to leave Britain inbound for the United States. In the wake of last week’s events and arrests Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff was quote in the New York Times as saying he

hopes the plot serves as a “wake-up call” convincing airline executives and European officals that the changes should become permanent.

Until yesterday passenger data was provided 15 minutes after a British flight took off for the United Sates, this allowed the flights to be turned around if any suspected terrorists or criminals were on board, but this could not provent mid-air attacks.

British Airways and Ryanair Holdings canceled flights today as disruptions at London airports dragged on for a sixth day because of the heightened security checks.

British Airways dropped 52 outbound flights, while Ryanair said it was forced to scratch eight flights because of the slowness of security screening and blamed BAA, owner of Heathrow, Stansted and Gatwick airports, for the backup.