HEATHROW DRAMA AS MAN RUNS ONTO RUNWAY

There was drama at Heathrow Airport this week when a man carrying a rucksack sprinted onto one of the airport’s busy runways within yards of a packed Emirates passenger jet. He is thought to have scaled a perimeter fence. The incident happened the day before the Queen was due to open the airport’s new Terminal 5. Police were on the scene within minutes arresting the man and detonating his bag in a controlled explosion, although no explosives were found. Onlookers described how they saw the man running towards an aircraft and then dropping his bag, before being restrained by police.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was happy that everything was now being done to ensure that security at Heathrow is intact. This was a major security breech at the UK’s largest and busiest airport and just goes how easy it would be for a terrorist to get onto a runway and in the path of planes. If this man had been a terrorist and had been carrying a bomb, the consequences don’t bear thinking about. This incident could have caused mass destruction and loss of life on a wide scale. Questions definitely need to be asked as to how this happened and security needs to be tightened. Suggestions have been made to bring in the military to patrol Heathrow’s perimeter fence. Measures definitely need to be put in place to stop anything like this happening again. The British public demand nothing less.