Heathrow implements special measures for London 2012 Games as firearms 'flood in'

[richard]

Hundreds of firearms will be brought into London for the 2012 Olympic Games prompting Britain’s largest airport, Heathrow, to introduce new security measures to cope with the influx.

Athletes will not be able to pick up their firearms at the airport, but will have to produce the required paperwork to the UK Border Agency once they have arrived at the Olympic competition venue at the Royal Artillary Barracks.

Special London Olympic Games staff (Locog) will be responsible for collecting and transporting the firearms at the airport to a secure vehicle to be transported to the Royal Artillary Barracks.

Heathrow’s Olympic planning documents show that 390 athletes will bring 780 firearms for the Olympics and 140 athletes with 20 firearms will arrive for the Paralympics.

“To manage the extra demand we will be putting in place a system to ensure the firearms are safely transported to the appropriate venue,” the document says.

“When the competitors arrive, firearms will be collected and transported by approved handler to airside Locog (the London 2012 organisers) vehicles where they will be secured and subsequently transported to the Royal Artillery Barracks.

“On the day of issue of firearms to athletes, UKBA (the UK Border Agency) will perform necessary checks against required paperwork within the armoury at RAB.”

Heathrow has also revealed it is spending £20 million on Olympic related costs, including hiring an additional 250 security staff to deal with the additional demands of the Games that will, at times, overstretch existing capacity.

Nick Cole, Heathrow’s head of Olympic and Paralympic planning, described the London 2012 Games as “a unique operational task and a massive challenge”.

He noted: “The airport is one of the most popular international airports in the world and already operates close to capacity.

“Every part of the airport is working together to ensure we can give the athletes a warm welcome and ensure all passengers enjoy the atmosphere.”

The document says that unless measures were put in place the existing baggage carousels would be unable to cope with the influx of bags causing delays of more than an hour in Terminal 1 and Terminal 5.

But the airport is planning on taking bags off carousals for collection on the floor and is working with the UK Border Agency for 'VIP' passport lanes for Olympic athletes, staff and other Olympic Family members to prevent border delays.

”Delays to this process could have a knock on effect and delay the pick up of bags and clearing the bag hall,” the document says.

Heathrow officials say the peak day for arrival of Olympic athletes is July 16, while August 13, the day after the closing ceremony, will be the busiest day in Heathrow’s history and the most challenging.

On that day, Heathrow workers will need to cope with 35 per cent more departing luggage as athletes take home on average more than three and a half bags each, one bag more than they will have arrived with. Overall, officials are expecting 138,000 departing passengers compared with a normal day of 95,000.

Compounding the sheer numbers will be the volume of oversized bags and sporting equipment. Heathrow is constructing a special departure terminal for athletes between the existing terminal four and a cargo area to take the stress off other departing passengers.


Source
By Jacquelin Magnay
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph - Telegraph