Fri, Aug 13, 2004
American Association of Airport Executives issues alert,
reports NBC trying to set up GA facilities and FBO's
Rebecca Morrison, Staff Vice President, Transportation Security
Policy Department at the American Association of Airport
Executives, has transmitted the following memo and requested widest
possible distribution:
The following is a
description of an incident that occurred today (11 Aug) at the
St. Louis Downtown Airport, a large GA facility. We are
sharing this story with you as there are indications that it might
be repeated throughout the country. We would like to thank
Bob McDaniel, the Director at the St. Louis Downtown Airport, for
sharing the details of the incident outlined below.
Earlier today two Middle Eastern men attempted to penetrate
our security. They telephoned one of my helicopter FBOs and
asked about a charter flight. After discussion of price and
directions to the business, they arrived an hour later. When
the office agent asked how they were going to pay for the flight
they produced cash. When asked for ID, they produced
driver’s licenses from two different states and they were
driving a car licensed in a third state.
Things didn’t smell right so the mechanic took them
into the hangar to see the aircraft while the office person called
the FBI and local police. The helicopter they were going to
fly was blocked in by other aircraft so the mechanic was able to
stall them by having to slowly shuffle the blocking planes.
Meanwhile the two men got their backpacks and odd-shaped luggage
out of their car. Soon the local police arrived and they were
hauled off to jail in handcuffs.
After a little time behind bars, the FBI verified that the
two men were employed by NBC New York and were on assignment to get
a story of how easy it is to charter a helicopter for a terrorist
attack. The men had stayed in a local hotel and purchased box
cutters, leather-man knives, and other potential weapons at the
local Wal-Mart using a credit card. The box cutters had been
hidden in the lining at the bottom of the back packs and the other
weapons were hidden throughout their baggage. They had
audiotaped the telephone conversation with Arlene and were going to
use it as part of a national news story about how easy it is to get
information and directions to the location of the helicopter and
then hijack it to commit a terrorist attack.
I doubt they will be back at our airport soon and this is a
story that will never be seen since they were caught. A very
“well-done” to my FBO and staff and the local FBI and
police response forces. We have since learned that we were
the first airport where this had been attempted and NBC planned to
attempt similar penetration stories around the country.
Please help me spread the word to other airports.
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