KUWAIT, 11 July 2004 — Security officials yesterday downplayed a newspaper report alleging lax security at Kuwait International Airport after a British reporter took a knife aboard a British Airways flight.
“This is an individual incident and does not mean we have lax security,” a senior Kuwait security official told Reuters.
“We are not introducing any new security measures because the measures are there already. However, we will hold accountable anyone not doing his duty. They will be punished.”
The Sun tabloid on Friday said one of its reporters boarded a flight on Wednesday from Kuwait to London’s Heathrow with an eight-inch dagger in his hand luggage.
The journalist was photographed carrying the hunting knife while sitting in the British Airways business section.
“Checks at Kuwait City airport were so lax our team was able to sit with the weapon yards from the cockpit,” The Sun reported.
“Our bag sailed through two X-ray machines without raising the alarm on the way to the departure lounge for BA flight 156,” the newspaper said.
Kuwaiti newspapers yesterday quoted a BA spokeswoman as saying the airliner had opened an investigation and asked Kuwaiti authorities to review security procedures at the airport, 25 km (15 miles) south of the capital.
Leading daily Al-Qabas also quoted Yacoub Al-Saqer, head of the state-run Directorate of Civil Aviation, as saying security at the airport “is in line with international standards”.
Kuwait stepped up security in recent months because of spiraling violence in Iraq and an increase in militant attacks in the region.
