DUBLIN Airport is investigating after a passenger carried a knife on board a flight.
Airport chiefs have stressed that the incident, which involved a man travelling to Cologne, had been an “inadvertent error”.
The Irish Independent reports that the blade was in the man’s laptop bag when he travelled through the airport’s security systems last week.
The newspaper says the passenger was quizzed for two hours by airport police after telling Germanwings airline staff about his mistake.
In a statement Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) said: "We are aware of this one-off incident, which was an inadvertent error by a passenger on board a Germanwings flight from Dublin to Cologne last Sunday.
"Dublin Airport has a policy of not commenting in detail on security matters, so we are unable to make any further statement relation to this incident."
Last week’s incident comes three years after Dublin Airport Authority bosses were left red-faced after a woman managed to carry a knife undetected through tight security checks at the facility.
The woman, who had cancer, was hired to test the airport’s security measures.
It later emerged that she had been able to carry a portable chemotherapy pump, and the knife, through all the checks without being discovered. When a scanner beeped a member of the Airport Security Unit reportedly believed it had been set off by the pump and allowed the woman to pass through.
Meanwhile, the Irish Independent also reports that security queues in the airport have breached the 30-minute time limit only eight times over the last five years.
An “automated technology” system is being used by DAA to ensure passengers do not have to spend more than half an hour queuing for security checks.
