A Canadian company could be in the spotlight as security forces probe how an armed man stormed past Jamaican security guards and forced his way on to a Canadian airliner, terrorizing its crew and passengers.
Vancouver Airport Services holds a 25.5 per cent stake in the company that operates Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, where the hostage drama unfolded early yesterday.
After failed bids by the hostage-taker’s father, sister and friends, who were brought in by police negotiators to talk him into surrendering, Jamaican security forces stormed the jet yesterday morning, seizing the hijacker and freeing the six crew members of the CanJet flight. The passengers had been allowed off the jet during the night.
Jamaican police identified the suspect as Stephen Fray, a 21-year-old Montego Bay resident whom they called “troubled.”
After the incident was over, Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding said there would be questions asked of the airport administration about how the gunman got past security and on to the jet.
Guards at the Montego Bay airport are not armed.
“We have privatized the airport and therefore security of the airport is the responsibility of the management of the airport,” Golding told a news conference.
“In fairness, all airports have been managed effectively in terms of this kind of security. ... We have to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Therefore, that will be the direction of the investigation.”
Vancouver Airport Services is partially owned by the non-profit airport authority that runs Vancouver International Airport. It operates airports around the world, including several in Caribbean nations, and has a holding in MBJ Airport, which runs Montego Bay’s facility.
Last year, the Montego Bay airport handled 3.3 million travellers.
Rebecca Catley, director of communications with the Vancouver Airport Authority, said the MBJ Airport receives technical services and support from Vancouver Airport Services Ltd. network.
Vancouver Airport Services is the consulting arm of the airport authority and calls itself “North America’s leading global airport investment, management and development company.”
The subsidiary operates 18 airports in seven countries.
But Catley said Vancouver Airport Services only provides services and support to the Jamaica airport and “is not, in fact, the operator of the airport. The relationship is purely general consulting.”
Catley would not comment on whether Vancouver Airport Services provides security consultation.
Althea Tharkur, a spokesperson for MBJ Airport, said she was “not allowed to comment” when asked if there had ever been a security breach at the airport before.
An airport security expert said the problem at Montego Bay is not one of security, but of law enforcement. “There are airports all over the world where this could happen on a daily basis,” said Chris Yates, of British-based Jane’s Airport Review.
He told CBC’s Newsworld that someone approaching airport security brandishing a weapon must be dealt with by law enforcement on site. Yet he said it is not rare for airports to be without armed police.
“Post-9/11, there was a great emphasis put on screening passengers with high-tech equipment,” but high-tech equipment doesn’t replace the need for a law enforcement person, he said.
Karl Angell, a spokesperson for the Jamaican police, told CTV news security at the airport is provided by a private security company, backed up by port security who answer to the ministry of transport.
“The police are only called in the case of offences,” he said, citing drugs or weapons crimes.
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