An Israeli journalist pretending to be disabled reportedly smuggled a fake gun and a bomb hidden in the seat of his wheelchair onto airplanes at Ben-Gurion Airport in Israel and Charles de Gaulle Airport in France.
The undercover reporter for the Israeli daily Yediot Achronot was doing an expose on holes in airport security.
The newspaper said the undercover reporter, David Suleiman, flew on Air France and El Al flights between Tel Aviv and Paris, but security officials at the two airports failed to pass the wheelchair through electronic scanners.
Suleiman conducted the experiment amid stepped-up fears about the efficiency of airport security in the wake of the July 17 mid-air explosion of TWA flight 800 shortly after it took off from New York’s JFK Airport.
All 230 passengers and crew aboard were killed in the crash, which is suspected to have been caused by terrorists.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
