A major emergency plan was put in place at Dublin Airport yesterday as a Lufthansa jumbo jet en route to the United States was diverted to Dublin following a security alert. Daniel McConnell and Tim O'Brien report.
The Boeing 747-400 carrying 370 passengers and 18 crew was about two hours into its journey from Frankfurt to Newark, New Jersey, when what is believed to have been a bomb warning was phoned to a Lufthansa call centre in Europe.
The airline said the call was received shortly before 3 p.m., and the aircraft, flight 402, was diverted to Dublin "as the nearest available airport".
The full Dublin Airport fire service, supplemented with units of Dublin Fire Brigade, was mobilised when the aircraft landed at about 3.30 p.m. Passengers were evacuated within five minutes. The aircraft was directed by the control tower to a distant runway. Gardaí and members of the Army bomb disposal unit were also at the scene.
Dublin Airport remained open throughout the incident.
A spokeswoman at Dublin Airport said last night: "It was rerouted into Dublin because apparently Lufthansa had received a call to their call centre saying there was a suspect device aboard."
Last night, as security services were unloading the aircraft's cargo, passengers were being accommodated in the terminal building.
A Lufthansa spokesman said he could provide no further details about the call that led to the unscheduled landing. "We were given permission from security personnel at Dublin to offload the plane so the bags could be checked and matched to the passengers on board.
"At this stage, the top priority is the only priority and that is the security of our passengers and crew. While we have made alternative arrangements to proceed on to the States as early as possible, they are of course all dependent on the outcome of the search."
At 10 p.m. the aircraft was still being searched while a back-up flight crew was placed on stand-by in case clearance was given.