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41 killed
A terrorist attack at Turkey’s Ataturk airport has claimed at least 41 lives. Three gunmen loaded with suicide vests attacked the terminal, fired upon travelers, clashed with police, and eventually detonated their suicide bombs. Two of the gunmen detonated their bombs within the terminal and one in the parking lot. The death toll is expected to rise to as high as 50. [BBC]
230 injured
The Turkish justice minister said that 230 people were injured as well. This is far from the first act of terror this year on Turkish soil: Just this past March, 37 were killed by a car bomb in Ankara. [BBC]
11th busiest
The Ataturk Airport in Istanbul is the 11th busiest airport on the planet, with 61.8 million passengers passing through there last year. [Yahoo]
6.44 percent
Turkey’s tourism industry has seen visits from foreigners drop substantially as the region destabilizes. January 2016 tourism was down 6.44 percent year over year. [The Telegraph]
8 percent
Further damage to tourism would be especially harmful, as 8 percent of Turkey’s workforce are employed directly in the tourism business. [BBC]
0
Number of attackers able to get past the first security check, in part due to the courageous actions of the police in the airport. From a design perspective — compared to the American system of a single security check leading to a massive line full of unscreened individuals — Turkey’s airports have a security check at the entrance of the buildings and a subsequent checkpoint before the departure gate. [Haaretz]
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