Airport Bombing

Three Britons were amongst the 35 killed at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport a couple of weeks ago, and another 110 were injured following the suicide bombing that left so much human suffering in its wake.

In a week when Britain was conducting its own inquiry into the London tube and bus bombings that killed a similar number, the Moscow bombing acts as a stark reminder of the dangers that we all face. We are constantly being told to be vigilant, to report anything suspicious. There is even a dedicated “Terrorist” hotline that is manned 24 hours a day; I have had occasion to call this number myself to report a suspicious situation, and the phone didn’t even rang twice before it was picked up. A week after I had made that phone call and had given my statement, I received a follow up call from a police officer from Kings Cross to let me know that what I had reported was also reported by at least 3 other people. Thankfully our suspicions were not terror related, but they could have been, and the fact that a central phone number exists for anyone to call is reassuring.

The problem, however, is that there are now so many holes in the security measures that are supposed to protect us, that it may only be a matter of time before a similar thing happens again somewhere in the U.K. Anyone that takes the time to look around any public place where large numbers of people gather will notice that there are numerous opportunities for terrorists to create carnage. We all know that a determined terrorist will succeed if they are not challenged early enough, or if they manage to go undetected by the intelligence services. So why hand it to them on a plate?

Last week a number of taxi drivers were pulled over by police at Heathrow on the airport perimeter road. Their “crime” was having their For Hire signs illuminated whilst making their way to the taxi rank! Each of these drivers were told to switch the For Hire sign off, as plying for hire within half a mile of any taxi rank at Heathrow is illegal. What the police at Heathrow don’t seem to understand is that the For Hire sign is only a visual aid, and does not constitute “plying for hire”. So what a waste of police time and resources this turned out to be. Could the police have been better deployed at one of the largest airports in the World?

Heathrow airport has been the target of terrorist attacks in the past, and the current climate of terrorist threats makes it a very sensitive and potentially dangerous place for the public. Rather than pulling taxi drivers over on the perimeter road, the police should be making sure that the areas where the public do congregate are looked after. After all, if a bomb were to go off on the perimeter road it is unlikely that many people would be killed or injured, but if this was to happen in one of the terminals the consequences would be horrendous.

The main focus of police activity should be in the terminal buildings themselves, not the perimeter road. And the freedom of people to wander into the terminal buildings when they have no business there should be of far greater concern to them than taxi drivers who have their For Hire signs on when legitimately making their way to the taxi rank. The illegal taxi touting that is carried out by both licensed and unlicensed minicab drivers is now at epidemic proportions in some of the terminals at Heathrow, and this in itself is a major security issue. It’s not the touting that should concern the police so much, as the potential for a suicide bomber to be ignored under the pretence that it is just another tout.

Wasn’t it illegally parked “minicabs” that were packed with explosives in Haymarket, before suspicions were raised, after it became apparent that they had been abandoned?

If these two car-bombs had not failed to detonate, there would have been a terrible loss of life as a consequence.

Domodedovo airport has been accused of lax security, and President Medvedev has called for the sacking of senior security staff at the airport. Could a similar thing happen at Heathrow? Let’s hope that David Cameron doesn’t have to call for the sacking of those responsible for security at Heathrow in a similar fashion.

If the police at Heathrow want to really do something worthwhile, they should forget about taxi drivers legitimately displaying their For Hire signs, and concentrate on the illegal activities of taxi-touts in the terminal buildings instead.