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.
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
A magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 2:23pm today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was 5.4 kilometers northeast of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 34.9 km, according to the CWA. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was the highest in Hualien County, where it measured 2 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 1 in Yilan county, Taichung, Nantou County, Changhua County and Yunlin County, the CWA said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS