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Airport Row over Armed Arab Guards

January 10, 1974
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The Department of Trade and Industry is to investigate complaints by Heathrow Airport workers that armed Arab guards employed by Jordanian airlines are “wandering around the tarmac with guns” during overnight stops. The Arabs have caused concern among cleaners and maintenance men who say they have seen them walking about with machineguns in the middle of the night.

A Trade and Industry Department spokesman said an airline guard should leave his weapons locked up on board if he wished to leave the plane or hand them over to customs.

It was meanwhile revealed that a new weapon called “people-sniffer,” is being used by troops in the security operation at Heathrow. The electronic gadget can pick out a person in hiding from several hundred yards. Its mass of aerials detects body heat, and pinpoints where a person is.

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