MEASURES to beef up airport security will be put in place immediately in a bid to avert a repeat of last Wednesday’s incident when a man managed to drive his car onto the Larnaca airport taxiway, causing chaos along the way.
“No one guarantees what will happen in the future, and similar incidents have occurred in many well-known airports in Europe,” Communications Minister Haris Thrasou said yesterday.
“What we can promise is that we will exert maximum effort to increase measures in order to minimise the possibility of a repeat,” he added.
The minister was speaking after a meeting, prompted by Wednesday’s incident and also attended by the Justice Minister, the police leadership and the CAA, which looked into the broader issue of airport security.
“Decisions have been made for practical measures, immediate measures as well as those that will be put in place in planning the new airports, which we hope will be constructed soon,” Thrasou said.
A committee will be tasked with monitoring the implementation of the measures and assessing their effectiveness with a view to correcting any shortcomings.
The minister said the preliminary findings of a police investigation into Wednesday’s incident had been used to help in deciding on the measures.
He added that there was no official report yet.
“We used the incident as a tool for the work we are doing for the future,” Thrasou said.
Wednesday’s incident happened just after 7pm when the man, along with his five-year-old nephew, managed to enter the taxiway through a gate just to the left of the main building.
The man sped under the parked aircraft and forced two Cyprus Airways flights that had just arrived to come to a stop in order to avoid a collision.
Airport police only managed to apprehend the man 20 minutes later.
Reports said the man managed to enter the taxiway by following another car, whose driver had authorisation to enter, and the police officer at the gate assumed that he too had clearance.
Details of the new measures were not revealed.
Reports, however, suggested that one step would be to cut down the number of vehicles entering the specific area.
Non-authorised people who use the area to park their cars would be banned, while those using the area would have to give all their details, which would be kept on record.
The meeting also discussed measures that would have to be put in place when the new airports were finished.
Under the agreement for the construction of the new airports, the investors will be obliged to provide all necessary security equipment in accordance with EU rules.
