CY Leung’s office clarifies that he did not talk to Airport Authority officials, though he did speak with airline staff
PHILA.SIU@SCMP.COM
UPDATED : Friday, 08 April, 2016, 3:33pm
The Chief Executive’s Office clarified that CY Leung was never in touch with Airport Authority officials, though he did speak to airline staff over his daughter’s phone. Photo: Sam Tsang
The saga involving the delivery of a piece of luggage to Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying’s daughter without following standard security procedures has taken a new turn, with aviation insiders saying that airlines have discretionary power to help their customers in this fashion, and that such incidents actually happen from time to time.
Former director general of civil aviation Albert Lam Kwong-yu said on Friday that, under security procedures, airlines are allowed to deliver left luggage to their passengers from restricted into non-restricted areas.
“Airlines have the discretionary power to do so. The important thing is that the luggage eventually went through security checks,” Lam told the Post.
Under the Aviation Security Ordinance, the Airport Authority needs to draw up an aviation security programme. The programme constitutes the airport’s security protocols.
Lam said that under this security programme, airlines have the power to deliver left luggage to passengers from non-restricted into restricted areas.
“There are situations when passengers leave their personal belongings outside. In those cases, they can talk to the airline and see what the airline can do for them,” Lam added.
A commercial pilot who asked not to be named said details of the programme are not made publicly available, adding that they should be made known to quash public concerns.
Former Civic Party lawmaker Ronny Tong Ka-wah recalled how three years ago, he realised he had left his cellphone in a rental vehicle only when he was already waiting at the boarding gate in Okinawa, Japan. Airport staff contacted the car rental company for him, and he got his phone back without leaving the restricted area.
“Of course the airport staff did not know that I was a lawmaker. They just did what they felt should be done at work. Leung Chun-ying is not a good chief executive. I absolutely have no good feelings for him. But it makes people suspect that the incident involving his daughter has been overblown,” Tong wrote on his Facebook page.
Grilled by reporters on Friday, Secretary for Security Lai Tung-kwok said there were principles covering how a piece of left luggage can be delivered into the restricted area: the owner has to be identified; the luggage needs to go through security checks; and it should pose no aviation risks.
He said that similar deliveries had been made in the past, and that was why the Airport Authority said on Thursday night that no security procedures had been breached.
The incident came to light on Thursday when Apple Daily alleged that Leung had exerted pressure on airport staff to bypass security rules to deliver a piece of left luggage to his younger daughter, Chung-yan, so she could board her March 28 flight to San Francisco in time.
The top official has denied the accusations. But questions remain as to who made the decision to deliver the item into the restricted zone.
In a statement on Thursday, the Chief Executive’s Office said Chung-yan had not sought help from her father over the luggage. Instead, the city’s leader had phoned his daughter out of habit to say goodbye before she boarded the flight. It was then that he learned of the incident.
It went on to clarify that the chief executive was never in touch with Airport Authority officials, though he did speak to airline staff over his daughter’s phone to find out about the incident. He wanted to know how the luggage could be retrieved if his daughter was to leave Hong Kong first, the statement said.
He did not ask anyone to call him “Chief Executive Leung” and did not exercise any privileges that night, it added, refuting earlier reports that he had done so.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1934661/left-luggage-saga-hong-kong-aviation-insiders-say-airlines
