Fresh fears have been raised after a reporter walked into a highsecurity area at a British international airport without being checked. The BBC journalist and two cameramen spent half an hour wandering among the planes in the aircraft manoeuvring area at Humberside Airport.

The Reporter said it was “surprisingly simple” to get into the airport. She walked straight through an unmanned barrier. She told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme a security expert was “absolutely stunned” she had not been stopped. She was eventually stopped by security staff while filming in the airport terminal and questioned for nearly three hours by Special Branch officers before being released without charge.

A spokesman for the airport said: “We have appropriate levels of security - appropriate to all of the sensitive areas of the airport. A fence is just one method of security measure. We have all sorts of other measures in place.”

Humberside Airport, near Brigg in northern Lincolnshire, is used by holiday charter airlines and has scheduled flights to Aberdeen and Amsterdam. The breach is likely to cause concern given the increased anxiety among travellers.