Qantas tries to quell row over security

Press, 21 February 1987, Page 11

Qantas tries to quell row over security

NZPA staff correspondent NICK BROWN Sydney Qantas moved yesterday to quell a diplomatic row which broke out over its contract security staff forcing the Prime Minister of Vanuatu, Father Walter Lini, to undergo a body search before boarding a plane at Honolulu. Father Lini was in a wheelchair having suffered a stroke while visiting the United States.

A Qantas spokesman said Father Lini was subjected to the same security procedures every Qantas passenger “from the Pope down” had to go through. Diplomatic sources said the Australian Government was worried that the incident could damage sensitive relations with Vanuatu, which recently signed a fishing agreement with the Soviet Union. The Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs,

Mr Bill Hayden, asked for and received a report on the incident from Qantas. A spokesman for the Minister told NZPA yesterday that Mr Hayden was concerned that such an incident could happen.

But as there had been no official contact from the Government of Vanuatu, the matter was being left with the airline and Transport Department to sort out.

The Qantas spokesman said the only complaints about the incident had come from the American State Department officials escorting Father Lini, after they had unsuccessfully tried to circumvent normal security checks and take Father Lini straight on the plane.

“There was a minor confrontation between United States State Department officials and , security employees of Honolulu Airport,” he said. It is understood that the American officials

also complained to the Australian High Commission. “It is Australian Government policy ... that anybody, without exception, who boards an Australian aircraft has to pass through security clearance,” the .spokesman said. “That applies from the Pope down.” The security staff employed by Qantas and all other airlines at Honolulu could not check Father Lini by him passing through the metal detector machine because he was in a metal wheelchair. Hand-held metal detectors were unavailable at the time, so he was patted down by' security staff.

Other aviation sources told NZPA that Father Lini’s bodyguard had been pulled up previously for trying to carry an undeclared firearm on to a plane. But the Qantas spokesman said he was not aware of any firearm being found on the bodyguard at Honolulu.