The Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday it would determine who was responsible for allowing the illegal intrusion of a female passenger into the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s restricted area after reviewing a report by Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIA).
“The TIA has conducted a comprehensive inspection on the restricted area after the event and identified the locations that need to be reinforced,” said Chi Wen-jong (祁文中), director of the Department of Aviation and Navigation, adding the company also held a meeting yesterday with representatives from the Aviation Police, China Airlines and the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport Service.
The security of the nation’s largest airport was tested on Thursday after a 48-year-old woman entered the airport’s restricted area through a crack between a cement wall and barbed wire and eventually boarded a China Airlines aircraft. She was not found until the cabin crew of the aircraft conducted a routine inspection before takeoff.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
TIA president Samuel Lin (林鵬良) said he was “shocked” to hear of the event and decided to do an on-site inspection with the Aviation Police yesterday morning, in which the team found several flaws in Taoyuan airport’s security.
They found the ground at the bottom of the barbed wire appeared to have subsided in two different places.
Lin said the officials suspected that the intruder might have sneaked into the restricted area through one of these two places. He said that the airport set up two layers of security on its north side, including a 2.5m high barbed wire fence as a barrier outside and a 3m high cement wall on the inside. There are also 0.5m high razor wire obstacles on top of these two barriers, he said.
He added that a small passage used by maintenance staff was located between the two barriers, which does not have a door or barrier to restrict access. While the jet bridge has an access control system preventing passengers coming through the terminal from going down to the airport ramp, Lin said that the bridge was not equipped with a similar system that could stop those going up from the ramp to the jet bridge.
Lin said the inspection team also found that the aircraft that the intruder boarded landed at 12:44am and the crew members finished cleaning the cabins and their other procedures at 2:23am.
“The crewmembers were supposed to tell the maintenance operation center to close the cabin door and remove the jet bridge after they were done, but they didn’t,” Lin said. “So the intruder was able to enter the cabin at 3:31am.”
Lin said that the intruder drove a ladder truck used by the ground crew, who left the key in the ignition, adding that this violated airport security regulations.
Many asked why the control tower failed to notice the truck since its radar can detect a moving object on the taxiway.
Air Navigation and Weather Service Deputy Director Chien Yuan-lin (錢元琳) said the motorized vehicles used by the ground crew are equipped with transponders if the vehicles are meant to operate on the taxiways.
“The ladder truck is not supposed to appear on the taxiway, so it does not have a transponder,” Chien said.
Chien said that rather than appearing as a straight line, the lack of transponder made the truck look like an isolated dot on the radar screen, which could easily be overlooked.
In light of the event, Chien said they would inform the TIA whenever they found any unusual signal on the radar screen.
According to Chien, the unauthorized passenger drove on the 1.8km taxiway from 3:25am to 3:29am.
Prior to her arrival, there were two cargo flights using the runway: One departed at 3:14am and the other landed at 3:18am.
Taiwanese barista Xie Yi-chen (謝溢宸) recently triumphed at the 2024 World Coffee Championships, taking home 1st place in the World Latte Art category. Xie, 28, impressed the judges in the final round with patterns of a whale, a moose, and a dragon in the three-day competition that took place in Copenhagen, Denmark from June 27-29, clinching the title of latte art world champion during his first time representing Taiwan on the world stage. At a press conference held by the Taiwan Coffee Association on Thursday, Xie said that creating latte art gives him a tremendous feeling of achievement. Speaking about his entries in
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
TRAVEL CONVENIENCE: The program is to shorten wait times while passing through airport checks and would start for Taiwanese from January next year Japan is to launch a new program to expedite entry procedures for Taiwanese starting from January next year. The Japanese government is planning to introduce new rules to shorten the time it takes foreign travelers to pass through immigration, thereby attracting more tourists to visit, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported yesterday. An airport preclearance program would be implemented to allow foreign travelers to finish some screenings at their departure airport’s terminals and undergo simple confirmation procedures upon arrival, it said. The program would initially be applied to travelers from Taiwan from January next year and could be extended to travelers from elsewhere depending
The annual Taipei Summer Festival, which starts today, is to tone down its fireworks displays, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said on Monday. Fireworks displays are to be held at the riverside site in Datong District’s (大同) Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area on four days at this year’s festival, with the first today, and then on Wednesday next week, July 31 and Aug. 10, the department said. There were eight displays last year, with the reduction aimed at minimizing inconvenience to local residents, it said. The first three shows, which are all on Wednesdays, are to last for five minutes, while the final