Man arrested trying to run onto runway at Heathrow Airport

A man armed with a rucksack managed to get past security and onto the runway into the path of an oncoming aircraft at London Heathrow. An enquiry is now being conducted.

The man's actions disrupted flights for the day yesterday, he was arrested just before reaching the tarmac but the north runway was shut whilst armed officers held their guns towards him.

This incident came just 1 day before the Queen was expected to open the new terminal five. It's believed the rucksack contained clothes.

Police have said they don't know the man's motive but are confident it's not terror related. Workers at Heathrow believe it's a sign of protest over the new terminal and he wanted to cause havoc.

Gordon Brown has said that he's satisfied everything possible is being done to ensure security at the opening.

He later said: “I think the important thing about the Heathrow incident is that the person was detained, that all the security precautions went quickly into action, that he’s now being interviewed and that all possible steps were taken so that when this incident happened the arrest took place.”

A BAA spokesman said: “Clearly this incident is a matter of some concern and will be fully investigated in conjunction with the police.”

Twenty flights were cancelled by various airlines and outgoing flights diverted to the south runway.

This incident is the second in a number of weeks where security has been breached.

Are Airlines sacrificing safety for money?

The China Airlines accident couldn’t have happened at a worst time, the jet was packed with holidaymakers in the peak season of the vacation period.

It’s amazing that all passengers onboard escaped alive even if it was just by a hair’s breadth.

Ground workers have reported seeing fuel leaking from the right engine as the aircraft was taxiing to its parking spot. They alerted the pilots who at once began the evacuation procedure.

Once everyone had evacuated using emergency slides an explosion fired out on the left hand side engine.

It’s now serious questions are being asked. Where and how did the fuel leak happen, did the pilots notice the leak and if not why not, were the fuel tanks already damaged and been ignored?

This especially brings about a very important issue I have talked about before, have safety inspections been compromised in favour of money making? Investigations into this incident will be looking at the airline’s daily maintenance processes.

Nobody who wasn’t onboard the aircraft can imagine the terror and panic filling the cabin. Some have said the smoke that filled the inside whilst they were still evacuating started to take over the plane. It could have been a totally different result had the evacuation process taken longer than it did.

The designs of all aircraft are designed specifically so that all passengers can be evacuated in 90 seconds even with all the seats filled.

The investigation will most likely look at whether the crew did carry out proper evacuation procedures despite the evacuation going well in the accident.

This particular airline hasn’t had a good safety record to say the least. A China Airlines Airbus crashed on landing in 1994 at Nagoya Airport killing 264 people onboard. Four years later another Airbus went down in a residential area, in 2002 a 747 crashed in the Taiwan Straits.

China Airlines need to finally learn an important lesson and review its current operations and safety management. How many more lives are to be lost on their aircraft?

Are airports cashing in on passengers' misery?

It seems airports may be cashing in on the chaos bought about by new security measures.

Passengers are being hit with a number of charges before they get to departures. Such charges are for clear plastic bags that contain liquids, gels, and clear solutions etc. to be taken onboard following new security restrictions introduced last year.

Vending machines selling 4 bags for a pound have been installed at Newcastle, Luton and Belfast airports.

Other airports are charging for a ‘fast track’ alternative enabling passengers to get through security quicker, John Lennon airport are charging £2 for this service. Some are even charging travellers just to use terminals.

Norwich charges customers £3 to use the terminal. This all comes as BAA is already being put under the microscope for under-investing in the airport.

Although passenger charges increased by 7.5% the amount spent on the airport dropped from £298 million to £252 million.