“Fingerprint check for Lengnau SVP members”: Behind the scenes at Belp Airport
A group from Lengnau received exciting insights into the operation of Bern-Belp Airport.
Group of visitors from Lengnau at Bern-Belp Airport.
SVP member Ernst Bilang is an employee of the Belp airport police. Thanks to these relationships, the SVP Lengnau was able to organize a visit to Bern-Belp Airport, the capital’s airport. An exciting afternoon was a success.
Checking IDs, patrolling in and around the airport premises, enforcing security regulations, intervening in the event of suspicious objects, controlling the import and export of weapons, carrying out narcotics checks – the list of tasks of the Belp Airport Police is long and sounds exciting.
How to spot a fake ID card
“Of course, our work here is completely different than in the usual police service. Sometimes there is a lot going on, but sometimes checking travel documents and luggage is simply routine,” explains Ernst Bilang. It’s just a matter of keeping your eyes and ears open and trusting your senses. He explains how a counterfeit can be noticed in the series of numbers on the ID cards and what needs to be taken into account when passengers arrive.
The Lengnau sightseeing group has an “airport feeling” like before a big trip when they arrive in Belp. Who wouldn’t want to get in there? «The concrete runway was built in 1959. Commercial airliners were able to land. Business aviation with propeller planes began.” Ernst Bilang, who has a pilot’s license himself, explains the history of the airport, which now has 400 full-time positions, the federal base with the Federal Council jets and Rega.
President Hansruedi Lüthi (left) with Ernst Bilang on the tower.
It describes the training to become an airport police employee with the necessary knowledge of the Schengen manual, the applicable border code, the control routines through to the emergency plan and the operation of the high-quality control devices.
Flights with four charter airlines
Then it goes to the fingerprint check of the Lengnauer SVPlers. “Stay together,” is the motto outside on the grounds during busy flight operations. The Embraer 190-E2 is currently taking off from Helvetic Airways with a total of 110 passengers. Skyalps flies the “DeHavilland Dash” DHC-8-Q400, Avanti Air flies with a Bombardier DHC-8-400 and a Pilatus PC 12/47E from the City Flyers Bern with a total of eight passengers is used on the island of Elba. These are currently the charter airlines that fly from Bern.
All types of jets and helicopters are used in business aviation. Visitors were able to experience the orderly process with a view from and inside the tower. Flights to or from Heraklion, Palma, Saanen, Djerba and Lausanne are currently being tracked. After the collapse in passenger numbers at Bern Airport in 2020, those responsible estimate that they will probably rise again to 170,000 in 2024, as in 2016.
The visitors were also impressed by the view into the halls with the powerful and highly technical fire engines and snow removal vehicles, the Federal Council jets and the private planes stationed in the hangars.
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