How “Airline Insiders” Help Criminals Rob Business Class Passengers
Jeff Edwards December 19, 2019
Following the murder of a prominent British business leader, Sky News reports the executive and his family may have been targeted by armed robbers who were tipped off by “insiders working for airlines” after the ultra-wealthy passengers arrived at the airport. Police say the organized gang of thieves likely followed the tourists from the terminal to their hotel.
The bizarre circumstances behind the death of a 50-year-old English tourist have made headlines all over the world. Matthew Gibbard, a businessman from Northamptonshire, was on vacation in Buenos Aires with his family when he was shot in the chest by motorcycle-riding armed robbers just moments after he arrived at the Faena Art Hotel in the Puerto Madero district.
While violent crime in Buenos Aires is not uncommon–according to a Foreign Office spokesperson, violent crime across Argentina has skyrocketed in recent months–the circumstances behind this particular crime are particularly disturbing, especially for those who fly business class.
CCTV footage recorded the deadly attack. You can watch the video here.
“They Have Insiders Working for the Airlines”
Gibbard’s killers followed him and his family as soon as they landed in Buenos Aires (EZE). But, they targeted Gibbard before he even landed. Local travel safety expert Lloyd Figgins told Sky News that the criminals were expecting Gibbard thanks to information from his flight manifest thanks to their accomplices who work for the airlines:
“Criminals are becoming a lot more organized and we’re starting to see they are having insiders working for airlines, where they are actually getting the manifest of a particular flight in order they can see who the business class travelers are, where they might be staying, and then targeting their vehicle from the moment they leave the airport, and knowing exactly which hotel they are going to. That in itself creates a choke point that makes it very easy for the criminals to target people.”
The criminals target business class passengers not just because of the money they may have on them, but for “specific things, particularly passports, money, and documents that are going to be of value to them,” travel risk expert and author Lloyd Figgins told reporters.
“A Small But Sophisticated Gang of Criminals”
“It’s not the first thing they have done here in the city of Buenos Aires,” police spokesperson Gabriel Berard said in a statement immediately followingGibbard’s death. “We already managed to identity the actors and we are working on their arrest. What happened on Saturday was an atrocious event and these criminals are murderers. My sincerest condolences to the family of Matthew Charles Gibbard.”
In an especially bloody few weeks earlier this year, a tourist from Sweden lost their leg when they were shot during an attempted robbery, and a Canadian national in Buenos Aires was stabbed when a mugger tried to steal his cell phone. Authorities say the investigation into this most recent robbery resulted in at least 18 raids and dozens of arrests. Police have a 21-year-old murder suspect in custody and have already arrested several alleged accomplices.
I hope they are smart enough to realize that not everyone in biz class is necessarily wealthy. Lots of people just flying on upgrades/points.
Telegraph reports Mr. Gibbard flew BA.
The airline was British Airways. But I don't think the airline is very important. British Airways no longer has Argentinian-based cabin crew so I would assume any inside information, if that's really what happened, came from airport workers, not people who work for the airline itself.
Even if you book a package including hotels and flight, the airline employee wouldn't know which hotel you are staying. That is because the vacation system the airline is using are different from airport GDS information system. Airline manifest would never include any other information except the flight itself. So supposedly the victim booked the vacation package from one airline, the airline employee can only see the flight portion. My suspicion is that the hotel employee tipped off the criminal gangs. The victim might have requested limousine service from the hotel and that information was handed to the criminals. Thus the gang knew of the victim since they arrived in airport. Again people needs to understand, the airline employee would not know the ground transportation arrangement nor the hotel. But the hotel employee would know all above details especially if the transfer is booked through hotel concierge, or the reservation departments had been instructed by the victim regarding their arrival details. I felt this article thus is poorly written without considering the high probability of hotel employee involvement.
glob99 - It was rampant all over Florida, as rental cars had license plates that identified them as rental cars. Florida change rental car plates after that. The first thing I do in a foreign country when the rental car has stickers with the company name on them is to take them off.