A report by Italy's national civil aviation authority has revealed that inspectors carrying fake bombs managed to pass unnoticed through checkpoints at major Italian airports. Details of the report, now with the Italian Transport Ministry, were leaked to the daily newspaper Corriere della Sera.
 Airports are supposed to confiscate all knives and sharp objects |
The civil aviation authority Enac has declined to comment except to say that inspections are routine and their results confidential. The news comes several days after a fake parcel bomb was found and an aircraft door tampered with at Cagliari airport on Sardinia.
The report dates back to August and involved inspectors commissioned by the civil aviation authority posing as passengers but carrying in their hand-luggage explosive devices and knives.
In five of the main airports - Rome, Milan, Bergamo, Palermo and Catania - they passed undetected through checkpoints and metal detectors. At Rome's Fiumicino airport a bag with a fake bomb passed unnoticed through domestic and international terminals and the staff entrance.
'Alarmist'
The inspectors also found a lack of searches of passengers, insufficient metal detectors and inadequate ways of testing for explosives.
The civil aviation authority has not confirmed or denied the contents of the report.
Security managers at Sicily's airports have challenged the data, saying procedures have been upgraded and it simply creates alarm.
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