Explosion on Tarmac at Sabiha Gokcen airport

[Fesenjan123]

BBC news report today:
An explosion on the tarmac at Sabiha Gokcen airport in the Turkish city of Istanbul has killed a female cleaner.
The woman who died was working on a Pegasus airlines plane overnight when the blast took place. A colleague who was with her was wounded.
The cause of the explosion is under investigation, the airport says.
Armed police imposed tight security at the airport's entrance, Turkish media report, but flights appear to be running normally.
The woman killed, 30-year-old Zeyhra Yamac, died of head injuries.
No passengers were on the plane or nearby at the time, Pegasus said in a statement.
It said the explosion had happened at 02:05 (00:05 GMT) on Wednesday. Although the cause of the blast was unknown, police were investigating whether it was a bomb, Dogan news agency reports.
Fragments from the blast damaged five other planes, Turkish Transport Minister Binali Yildirim said.
"[A] weakness in the airport's security is out of the question," he added.
Some witnesses claimed to have heard three consecutive explosions.

[MoonageDaydream]

More from the Independent website:

Turkish authorities have said it is too early to confirm whether an explosion that killed a woman at an airport in Istanbul was a bomb.
Zehra Yamac, 30, was working on her normal cleaning shift at Sabiha Gokcen airport when the blast hit in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
She was named as one of two injured staff by Pegasus Airlines, which said the incident happened on the tarmac where passengers board planes just outside the terminal building.

Ms Yamac suffered head injuries and died hours later at the Pendik Research and Training Hospital, according to Anatolia news agency.
Her colleague, Canan Celik Burgucu, 33, is being treated for hand injuries.

No one else was wounded in the blast, which was strong enough to damage several parked planes.

Sabiha Gokcen Airport, on the Asian side of Istanbul, continued operations after the explosion shortly after 2am local time (midnight GMT) as an investigation started.

“There was damage to five aeroplanes in total due to the impact of shrapnel. Weakness in the airport's security is out of the question. All international security standards are being implemented,” Binali Yildirim, the Turkish transport minister, told reporters.
“On the cause of the incident, security and intelligence teams are carrying out investigations. But it's too early to reach a verdict or comment on it yet.”

Security was increased, with armed officers setting up checkpoints at the airport’s entrances to search vehicles while a helicopter circled overhead. Police were also seen searching the outer perimeter as part of the continuing investigation into the cause of the explosion.

Bomb attacks by Kurdish, leftist and Islamist militants are common in Turkey but there was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Isis has vowed revenge on the country for joining the US-led coalition bombing its militants in Syria, while a three-decade-old conflict between the state and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) continues in south-eastern areas.

A photo on Dogan news agency's website showed a hole in one plane window. Video footage showed investigators taking photos of a terminal building wall, dozens of metres from the nearest planes.

Sabiha Gokcen is the second-largest airport in Istanbul, serving around 26 million passengers in the first 11 months of the year, less than half the number at the main Ataturk airport on the European side of the city.

[Keithcaley]

...Weakness in the airport's security is out of the question. All international security standards are being implemented,” Binali Yildirim, the Turkish transport minister, told reporters...

Well that's a relief then, because if that is the case, then there is obviously no possibility of the cleaners being able to smuggle a bomb into the airport...

In fact it couldn't have even been a bomb could it?

[sophie]

Interesting to read the Daily Hurriyet angle on the above. Subtle differences and there is absolutely NO WAY a bomb can be smuggled on a plane at a Turkish airport. It just had to be a Pegasus plane didn't it!!

[Jonnie]

Yes, another reason to add to the long list of such not to fly with this caricature of an airline!

[terry2366]

It seems it was mortar rounds fired from outside the perimeter not a bomb.

[Cally]

Surely that should of been obvious from the start if whatever killed this poor cleaner was inside the plane all debris would of blown out, however if it was incoming all the debris would of been inside the plane & quite obvious....

[Keithcaley]

Surely that should of been obvious from the start if whatever killed this poor cleaner was inside the plane all debris would of blown out, however if it was incoming all the debris would of been inside the plane & quite obvious....

And if the device was being smuggled onto the plane by the cleaner, but detonated prematurely?

From what's just been said, it appears that that was possibly not the case, but based on the first reports, it surely had to be one of the initial possibilities, didn't it?

[Grockle]

From what's just been said, it appears that that was possibly not the case, but based on the first reports, it surely had to be one of the initial possibilities, didn't it?

I know that it now looks like mortar fire, but my initial thoughts were that it was a maintenance issue.
The fact that there were cleaners on board indicated to me that there may have been engineers working on the aircraft too.

[scubadubaqueen]

One cleaner who had been working at the airport just 4 months died of head injuries, and her colleague damaged her hand? This sounds to me like an attempted repeat of what happened in Egypt, only this time planned to coincide with Christmas.

For a spokesman to say that "All international security standards are being implemented," might well be the case, but as so often happens nothing much is done to change security procedures until after incidents such as 9/11, that brought about huge changes in airport security and the sharing of intelligence; A major failing at that time. What happened in Egypt was also on the cards for a very long time, and I am surprised it did not happen sooner, but aside from many airlines stopping flights to Sharm el Shaikh, little has changed.

These attacks take some forward planning, and it was interesting to read that the cleaner who died, had only been working at the airport for 4 months. In countries that have poor standards of staff vetting or where the staff are at more risk of being radicalised or bribed, there is always going to be a higher risk of this type of attack, unless "international security standards" are heightened to meet such threats. This would involve mandatory screening of staff prior to loading luggage and entering an aircraft, screening of supplies, and the wider use of dogs trained to sniff out explosives air side. All this of course will cost money.

It is no good trying to make out "who dun it" post event, from some grainy CCTV images, after a plane full of Westerner's has been blown out of the sky at 30,000 feet. I fear we may see more of this unless something radical is done to tighten security air side, and I expect this story would have got far more press coverage, had the plot to blow up another airliner just prior to Christmas been successful, and I just wonder where this particular plane was scheduled to fly to next? I expect though it will be paved over and for the most part ignored, even though it was not the airport security authorities, neither intelligence, who foiled the attack. And from what I have read, this sounds to me like an IED that detonated prematurely, rather than any mortar attack as initially reported by some.

I sincerely hope that Ercan airport also realises this threat, for security is only as good as the weakest link, and when Cyprus Airports were specifically mentioned as being a target quite recently, do not assume necessarily that they meant the RoC. These people do not care, just so long as it is high profile. They are not Muslims, they are crazy people, and unfortunately whilst getting rid of Osama bin Laden may have been a good thing, the result has been the emergence of 1000s of wannabe Jihadists, and for every one you take out, there are now 1000 replacements, ready and willing to blow themselves up. I fear 2016 will be an annus horribilis, with the worst yet to come.

[Sallywebstersnipples]

I have to say that my first thought was, the cleaner done it, just a gut feeling. Having already booked several flights for this year I have to say that I am more than a little worried mainly because we have our Granchildren with us and later in the year we will have most of our extended Family as well all attending a Wedding. Not a single member of my Family has mentioned this attack so I assume the news got "lost" in the UK festive activities, I will be keeping an eye on the situation and any further airport attacks will probably see me calling a family conference. I hope security at Ercan has also improved dramatically as previously it has been very lax. Fingers crossed for a safe & peaceful 2016

[Fesenjan123]

According to Hurriyet Daily news online yesterday, it has been confirmed that it was mortar shells.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/Defaul ... sCatID=509

[Jonnie]

Clearly someone pissed off with Pegasus customer service!

[Dalartokat]

According to Hurriyet Daily news online yesterday, it has been confirmed that it was mortar shells.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/Defaul ... sCatID=509

What is interesting about this incident is the lack of official information. The Daily Sabah yesterday also said it was a mortar attack and incidentally, Hurriyet Daily has said in their article 2 people injured. It was one woman killed and another injured.

Now Daily Sabah today in their news report that it has been denied.

http://www.dailysabah.com/investigation ... ortar-fire

Reason I think to realise the media in Turkey are limited to what they can say because of the lack of official information and the Turkish Government's attitude also towards it's media.