LITTLE ROCK — Airports are developing electronic tripwires to protect miles of perimeter fencing and thwart breaches, such as last week’s $50 million diamond heist in Belgium.
QinetiQ Group Plc, a United Kingdom maker of spy equipment, Israeli security specialist Elbit Systems Ltd. and U.S.-based Verint Systems Inc. are among companies developing intruder-detection systems that they say can thwart similar raids. Heathrow airport, Europe’s busiest, is testing a combination of monitoring systems to gain a comprehensive picture of its surrounding fences.
In an age when security checks ban passengers from carrying large shampoo bottles in their hand luggage, the Brussels heist puts the spotlight on the security of airport perimeters, which can run for miles across unpopulated land.
“We’ve seen it before at other airports when somebody who didn’t have any bad intentions just came throughthe fence or climbed over the fence and ended up walking on the tarmac,” said Fred Lowrance, an airline analyst with Avondale Partners LLC in Nashville, Tenn. “If somebody is motivated to get on the property, they’re going to be able to do it. I don’t know what you can do short of having the perimeter patrolled by hundreds of armed officers every day.”
In Brussels, eight armed men stole $50 million of gems from the hold of a Zurichbound Swiss International Air Lines Ltd. plane on Monday after breaking through the fence.The attack took place at 8 p.m. and was over in 10 minutes. The robbers flashed guns at pilots and security workers before forcing open the cargo doors and taking packets of gems. Nobody was injured.
The Brussels gunmen forced their way through the airport fence at a place where two work sites obstructed a clear view, The Associated Press reported. Jan Van der Cruysse, a spokesman for Brussels airport, wouldn’t reveal whether anti-theft measures had been tightened as aresult.
“This is a situation that warrants our full attention,” he said. “We are addressing all the aspects.”
Verint Systems, based in Melville, N.Y., provides security systems at more than 50 airports and is leading a group of companies working on the so-called Total Airport Security Solution, which has been on trial at Heathrow.
The Total Airport Security Solution is part of a fouryear program funded by the European Union. It unites 20 companies, research organizations and end-users, including Haifa-based Elbit, Britain’s BAE Systems Plc, and airports in Greece and Portugal.
Heathrow, where the 1983 Brinks-MAT bullion robbery was known at the time as the “crime of the century,” also deployed radar provided by Cambridge, England-based Plextek Ltd. last May to help protect distant parts of the perimeter.
The company’s Blighter B400 series - developed and supplied by Touchstone Electronics - includes long-range day and night detectors, as well as high-definition equipment for tracking intruders. It is well-suited to monitoring remote areas, Heathrow Security Development Manager Andy Cowen said last year.
“Incidents around the world are quite common,” said Ian Graham, senior vice president at Verint Systems. “Airports are trying to put systems in place to almost tell them about a breach before it happens. You can have a virtual tripwire.”
London-based QinetiQ , the former U.K. government defense laboratory, is developing the OptaSense system, which is so far being used to guard oil pipelines against illegal siphoning and to monitor railway lines for the theft of metal cables.
At least $60 billion is stolen every year from within the global transportation system, according to Andrew Thomas, an associate professor of International Business at the University of Akron in Ohio. While the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States spurred security enhancements aimed at protecting passengers, measures against criminals have lagged, he said.
Business, Pages 74 on 02/24/2013