The case of a Vietnamese worker who was able to trespass into a restricted area and walk for 2km before being detained by police officers suggests security loopholes remain at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.
The Taoyuan International Airport Corp, which runs the airport, said the worker was scheduled to return to Vietnam on Friday afternoon after his work contract in Taiwan expired.
Because he was not sure how to proceed from the security inspection area to his boarding gate, he followed airport duty-free shop workers to freight elevators and subsequently entered the apron.
He was later found by an airline company’s ground crew and was detained by Aviation Police.
Sources within the Aviation Police said the man was able to walk along the long hall below the A6 boarding area in Terminal 1 all the way to the area below the D10 boarding gate. He then walked via a passage next to a taxiway to the hallway under the C10 boarding gate and proceeded from there to the hallway under the C8 boarding gate.
The man was eventually found by Evergreen Security personnel, who reported him to the police because he did not have identification to enter the restricted area.
The police said that the flight the man was supposed to take was yet to open for boarding when he entered the apron, adding that the airline company had not called the police to help locate any missing passengers before the flight departed.
The police said the man simply lost his way to his boarding gate, adding that the man was fined for trespassing.
The police called the man’s former employer to come and take care of him, and he returned to Vietnam on a later flight.
The incident was not the first security breach at the nation’s largest airport.
In 2011, an unauthorized passenger was found sleeping in the cabin crew lounge on a China Airlines aircraft.
He was found while the crew members were conducting a routine inspection before takeoff.
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