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| Europe |
| Killer was hired as Air France guard |
| 2003-12-31 |
| EFL: The company put in charge of security for Air France flights employed a convicted murderer and a number of others with serious criminal records, it emerged yesterday. The background of the guards was disclosed in a Paris court during a hearing to wind up the company, Pretory, which had been operating security on the French airline for more than two years but went into bankruptcy after tax fraud allegations. The revelation of its lax recruiting methods coincided with the disclosure that armed French police have been flying with Air France to the US since December 23. And you did backround checks on them, right? Hello? The government ordered the use of the gendarmerie after the US said that flights without armed escorts would be banned from overflying or landing, because of the fear of terrorism. Last week Air France cancelled six transatlantic crossings at short notice after Washington said terrorists might be on board. The airline refused to make any comment on a possible link with the use of a dodgy private company. "Je peux ne dire pas plus" Four days after the terror attacks in the US on September 11 2001 Air France was one of the first networks to announce that passengers would be accompanied by "specially trained agents". But the tribunal which ordered the company’s liquidation heard that, in a rush to recruit guards, it had taken on disco bouncers, dog handlers, nightwatchmen, How very French An investigation was eventually started last April, when the police looked into the background of 140 agents, the most qualified of whom were former soldiers. As a result of a search of criminal records more than 30 agents were grounded as a potential security risk. Well, to be fair, they’ve found a lot of crooks working as airport screeners in the US. The police also looked into the record of Pretory’s sub-contractors. This led to unconfirmed reports that some guards had been sent for arms training courses in Middle Eastern countries suspected of harbouring terrorists. OK, forget fair. Just keep Air France out of our airspace. A few weeks before yesterday’s liquidation hearing Air France announced that it was ending the contract with Pretory from today. But by then the company had run into legal trouble because of its non-payment of social security charges and alleged tax frauds amounting to about €4.5m (£3m). No wonder they were hiring people off the street. French diplomats gave assurances that the Pretory recruits had been replaced by police from the SAS-style intervention group, GIGN. Those guys are supposed to be good. According to police sources two to six gendarmes accompany every flight to and from the US, depending on the number of passengers. One guard is assigned to the cockpit. The men’s main weapons are electric stun guns and other non-lethal arms. "These men have received special training," a member of the force said. "In fact, we have been testing this sort of airline security for years." So quit your bitching and guard. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #1 Disco bouncers? I might pay to see them try to stop a hijacking. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-12-31 4:12:13 PM |