Man who slipped past Munich scanners remains a no-show (Roundup)

Jan 21, 2010, 17:40 GMT

Munich - German officials Thursday blamed a three-hour lockdown at Munich Airport on an airport guard, saying she ought not to have let a passenger take his laptop computer into a gate area before a closer check.

The mystery passenger, a man in his 50s wearing glasses who calmly chatted to another passenger as he put on his jacket and slowly walked away from a security check, has not been traced. He is thought to have then left on a flight Wednesday. There was no bomb attack.

His laptop computer was picked as suspicious by an X-ray scanner and then a chromatograph machine, which can sniff chemicals.

That device detected a 'marker substance' used in explosives, an airport security spokesman said. The same substance is also found in perfume and medicines. False alarms are common at airport security checks.

Christoph Hillenbrand, chief of the Oberbayern regional administration, said the man picked up all his luggage and walked away at a normal pace from the check before the guard could ask him to submit to another check. She ran after him but could not find him.

Hillenbrand said she had breached her instructions. He demanded that airport security staff follow their rules 'to the letter.' He denied the guards, who are employed by a state-owned company, were underpaid.

Airports in the West are taking no chances with security breaches after a suicide-minded Islamist narrowly failed on December 25 to blow up a plane flying from Amsterdam to the US city of Detroit.

A Chinese man who slipped past a security guard to kiss a woman passenger goodbye on January 3 provoked a six-hour lockdown of Newark Airport near New York and has been charged with disorderly conduct.

But a German prosecutor said the Munich passenger could not be charged if he had not heard or understood a call to stop.

Munich Airport's Terminal II re-opened a little over three hours after the alert, but many passenger missed flights and had to stay in hotels.

For 20 in transit with no German visas, the delay meant sleeping in the airport, Germany's second-biggest. They were lent stretcher beds.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said on breakfast television, 'I'm taking this incident very seriously.' He said he had demanded a complete review of what happened Wednesday.