[asia-apec 1235] NZ: APEC security embarrassment

[Gatt Watchdog]

New Zealand Herald, 7-8 August 1999
Auckland, New Zealand

Red faces as fake bomb has Auckland Airport on real alert

By Darrel Mager

An airport emergency crew member apparently had to return
red-faced to a terminal following a special Apec terrorism
training exercise this week to retrieve a fake bomb crew had
forgotten to collect.

Auckland Airport sources say the dummy bomb's discovery sparked a
major scare around 7am on Tuesday, delaying four flights and
keeping other planes away from their arrival gates for nearly two
hours.

The delay affected more than 1000 passengers as Army bomb experts
and police were called in after staff discovered a package outside
the airport's gate four.

The find was initially reported to media as a bag of rubbish, but
airport staff told the Weekend Herald it was actually a dummy
bomb, complete with fake gelignite, primer and timer.

"There's a few embarrassed faces around here," said the staff
member.

"The airport's fire rescue had an exercise the night before as a
training exercise running up to Apec.  The bomb really looked like
the real thing, laid out in a box, so it's no surprise that people
took it seriously [the next morning],"

Members of the fire rescue crew refused to talk to the Herald and
the airport's chief executive, John Goulter, yesterday would
neither confirm nor deny that the incident was caused by a dummy
bomb:  "I never comment on anything to do with aviation security".