Armed robbery at Brussels Airport

[b720]

they had better kept quiet! what will it be next time? Unfortunately the attack was carried out by professional terrorists?

[sn26567]

There was a precedent in Amsterdam Airport a few years ago.

On February 25, 2005, two men dressed as KLM workers entered the cargo terminal of Amsterdams Schiphol Airport in a stolen KLM car. The men audaciously intercepted a truck carrying millions of dollars worth of diamonds, which were on route to a Tulip Air plane bound for Antwerp. Armed with pistols, they forced the two drivers of the truck to lie on the ground, before casually driving away with the valuables. Although the police have not confirmed the precise value of the stolen goods, the amount has been estimated at around 75 million euros. If the estimation were accurate, the heist would mark the largest diamond robbery ever recorded.

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/gang ... sts/3.html

[MikeSnelPhoto]

Is there any consequence for plane spotters at the moment or to be expected in the coming days?

In my opinion, an accident like this occurs only when there is a leak in the supply chain information, in other words, I believe a member of the airport staff or Brink's staff has leaked the details of the transport to the robbers

[teddybAIR]

I seem to recall a similar diamond robery on BRU about 15 years ago. Back then they used Subaru's as getaway cars. It seems diamond heists pay off, as they sweetened up their ride since then

[Bruspotter]

Hi

Now this is rare and spectacular news you don't hear any day. I was totally astonished as I heard the news on the radio yesterday evening ...
These things happen in hollywood movies but who would've tought they would ever happen at BRU?

As for the security 'issues' at BRU, they sure as well might be there, but let's be honest guys, but if I understand the situation as I read and heard about it correctly, I think in this case it doesn't even matters ... they just smashed a fence and it's just as simple as that. They didn't had to forge or mis-use any airport ID/badge, or didn't need any other fancy things, they just rammed the fence out. Plain & simple.

I'm afraid that's something that you simply can't avoid so easily apart from building steel fences all around the whole airport (don't see that happening soon considering the cost and the metal framework maybe disturbing ILS and other navigation means near runways.). However ... adding a piece of concrete 'bumbper' up to height let's say 60cm or more already could do the job, I'd like to see that happening driving in with your car and smashing against that wall, no more driving then ...

Well let's see what happens.... but I could not say if it was just the safety of the Brussels airport perimeter was soo poorly as I walk along it often enough while spotting ... you just can't foresee everything..
Just don't understand what they where saying in the news that there was 'a hole' between 2 containers on a construction site (between Abelag and the 07L treshold)...? There sure as hell will not have been simply 'a hole' in the fence at that spot, been there countless times in the past months so if there where to be a hole in there, they must have simply drove the hole in the fence there for sure.

Greets, Yannick

[RCMike]

There is a story, from the old Sabena Ages, about an amount of gold that was lost on BRU tarmac... Several days later they found a cargo cart on the remote positions which amazingly still held... The gold

It was told to me, don't know if it's true though...

[Tomskii]

Well, if you see the "fence" I'm not surprised you can drive through it with a car...

Image: https://maps.google.be/maps?q=zaventem& ... 1,,0,-3.48

It's not even on that side of the airport. The gate you are showing btw is for CAE Academy only so you would still be on a part that is outside of the airport perimeter.

[LJ]

There was a precedent in Amsterdam Airport a few years ago.

Didn't robbers also halt a KLM aircraft arriving from Zurich and on its way to the gate once? They didn't get much, but it was more spectacular.

'Brussels' is now a worldwide trending topic on Twitter and the robbery is all over the (international) news. Again great publicity for BRU...

Well.. after almost 8 years the AMS is mentioned again (and probably will everytime a robbery at an airport takes place). That's what I call bad publicity.

The security people at BRU are responsible! This kind of breach should be IMPOSSIBLE.

As long as robbers have people on the inside, this can happen. You can make it more difficult but nobody can protect an airport for these kind of things.

It will be interesting to find out what the insurance company thinks about all this. They will not pay back that amount of money so easily. What were the conditions? Were they all met? Was just 1 security transport truck enough?

They'll pay, but at the same time try their best to track the robbers down and recoup their loss.

[Boavida]

Well, if you see the "fence" I'm not surprised you can drive through it with a car...

Image: https://maps.google.be/maps?q=zaventem& ... 1,,0,-3.48

It's not even on that side of the airport. The gate you are showing btw is for CAE Academy only so you would still be on a part that is outside of the airport perimeter.

You're right. Apparently it's this side of the airport: https://maps.google.be/maps?q=zaventem& ... 13.62&z=17

2 small fences. You can almost touch the planes. With a simple cutter you can make a hole in this fence. And no cameras in sight...

[Tomskii]

Well yes, but it still isn't the spot on which they penatrated the airport.

However, BRU has the same fences they have in LGG/CRL etc. The difference is LGG for instance has sensors installed on the fences.

This is the exact spot they penatrated the airport. https://maps.google.be/maps?q=50.896085 ... 4&t=w&z=16

(gates have been changed to full gates like at Abelag btw) so they decided to cut the fence open between two containers.

[airazurxtror]

http://www.lesoir.be/193125/article/act ... respectées»

Le dispositif de sûreté et les mesures de sécurité actuellement d’application à l’aéroport de Brussels Airport sont « parfaitement conformes aux normes édictées par l’Agence européenne de la sécurité aérienne », a indiqué mardi à l’Agence Belga, le porte-parole de Brussels Airport, Jan Van der Cruysse (...) « En matière de sûreté aéroportuaire, nous faisons du bon travail », a-t-il ajouté.

As regards the airport security, we do a good job : when saying that, is he aware that he is making a fool of himself ?

[Tomskii]

You do realize that what he says might actually be true right? Because BRU complies to the international safety rules for airports. So on that behalf he is right.

So maybe lets return the question to you: Are you aware while stating the above you made a fool out of yourself?

[cnc]

There is a story, from the old Sabena Ages, about an amount of gold that was lost on BRU tarmac... Several days later they found a cargo cart on the remote positions which amazingly still held... The gold

It was told to me, don't know if it's true though...

i remember that, it was worth a lot of money but couldn't have been gold since the bag was thrown in the dumpster because it was held in a garbage bag

[Tomskii]

PS: I'm not saying I do not think BRU has been making faults security whise over the last couple of years. But I'd like to see a real argument and not just a I-just-type-****-argument.

[Conti764]

I have shared the concerns before, everybody laughed at me and my paranoia, and were asking to give examples, now apparently everyone sees it...

AirOpinion you are right about all that, but please remove/edit that post before some gangsters see where the security threats are (or at least don't give them idea's).
BRU knows very well about the security issues, their unwillingness to deal with them is their problem. In the meanwhile pax pay 30 euro's in airport taxes and BRU make money.

Gangsters happy, BRU happy, everybody happy.

What were you saying Tolipanebas? Kinshasa is dangerous? You must be kidding me.

Oh boy, here we go again...

What is your problem actually? You take every single opportunity presented to you to bash either Brussels Airlines or Brussels Airport.

Sure, this happened before and it wil surely happen again. Sure, Brussels Airport isn't 100% secure... But wake up call, no matter which airport no matter where in the world is 100% secure. It is virtually impossible to apply a 100% watertight security. It is only a few years ago someone managed to slip through security using fake id's and even getting to the royal airplane at AMS.

Take Brussels as example... You have kilometers of fences and numerous dark spots and corners where it is relatively easy to penetrate the airport premises resulting in stuff like what happened yesterday.

You better learn to live with it. These things happend many times before and will happen again.And for police it is virtually impossible to stop those better armed, having nothing to lose gangsters. They'd better search for the moles within the airport (companies) supplying robbers with detailed information.

[Conti764]

Well, if you see the "fence" I'm not surprised you can drive through it with a car...

Image: https://maps.google.be/maps?q=zaventem& ... 1,,0,-3.48

If you penetrate this fence you are far from entering the tarmac.

[Flanker2]

I reject your arguments.

To me it's clear and irrefutably unacceptable to have security checks in the terminal if the door is wide open behind the terminal.
Perimeter security must be maintained at all times, otherwise you have a security breach to airside, meaning weapons and bombs can flow in and out. Airports have millions in revenues, this is what they need to invest them into.

That other airports like AMS have a similar issue is not a valid excuse.

When you do have a security breach like yesterday, you have to freeze everybody in and around the aircraft and anywhere the gangsters went through with their vehicle.
No one, pax or employees is allowed to leave their position and they have to remain within sight of other people or assemble to defined area's while security and police make sure that the gangsters did not leave any weapons behind to accomplices inside.

A small robbery can be used to conceal a bigger threat.

If this is not respected, you have to consider airside compromised and put all airside passengers and personnel back out of airside and recheck them all, while sweeping the entire terminal for concealed weapons and bombs.
I'm pretty sure that BRU did not do that, because they don't care.

This is just standard procedure but at BRU they don't tell you this kind of stuff, it's just plain chaos and no one knows what to do if there is an airside breach.

Point being, security at BRU and many other airports is not real.
In the terminal they are all over you about a little knife or even nail trimmer, while behind it there are men carrying heavy weapons robbing an airplane...

I was once in FRA in the middle of a bomb threat, in the 1990's. It was ridiculous, some cops walking around with guns showing their scary faces, looking in garbage bins.
What if the bomb was concealed underneath some chairs? No one seemed to be checking there

I'll tell you even more. At BRU there is a double/triple/quadruple standard. When BRU's own security is doing audits it's one thing, when not it's totally different.
Or you are Berlusconi or Claudia Schiffer, you pull up at Abelag and drive right through.

[Homo Aeroportus]

Reading some posts, methinks "Security for Dummies" would be a best-seller ...

H.A.

[Boavida]

You better learn to live with it.

Airport authorities should do ANYTHING to prevent such extremely EASY entry to the tarmac instead of "learning to live with it".

If a regional airport like Liège has sensors installed on their fence, why can't the national airport do the same? Certainly knowing there are dangerous/risky transports of money and diamonds on a daily(!) basis.

I'm a bit fed up with people trying to minimize this incident. This is no 'minor' incident, this is a scandal for BRU, period.

[flightlover]

You better learn to live with it.

Airport authorities should do ANYTHING to prevent such extremely EASY entry to the tarmac instead of "learning to live with it".

If a regional airport like Liège xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, why can't the national airport do the same? Certainly knowing there are dangerous/risky transports of money and diamonds on a daily(!) basis.

I'm a bit fed up with people trying to minimize this incident. This is no 'minor' incident, this is a scandal for BRU, period.

The best way to make any security measure useless is telling all about them to anyone.
Nice you are pointing out what to look for when trying to enter LGG but maybe it would be better to refrain yourself from doing that.