The head of Slovakia's border police resigned today over a botched airport security exercise in which a Slovak man flew to Dublin unknowingly carrying explosives in his luggage.
The man was detained in Ireland several days later, after Slovak authorities told their Irish counterparts to search for the explosives, which had passed through the small airport in the Slovak town of Poprad undetected by police sniffer dogs.
Interior Minister Robert Kalinak told reporters he had accepted the resignation of the head of the border and foreigners' police, Tibor Mako, whose department was in charge of the operation.
"What happened at Poprad airport was a stupid human error," Mr Kalinak said. "It is a clear an individual error, not a system failure. Disciplinary proceedings against the policeman responsible are under way."
A communications mix-up meant the man left Dublin airport unimpeded last Saturday with the explosives in his bag, where they stayed until a police raid on his apartment a few days later.
The Dublin Airport Authority said it had had no contact from authorities in Slovakia about the incident until Tuesday.
The traveller was later released without charge after Slovak authorities had apologised for their action.
Security experts condemned the planting of explosives, although minus a detonator, in the luggage of a regular passenger, instead of using a police agent.
Airport security has been boosted worldwide since an attempt to bomb a Detroit-bound airliner on December 25th, and authorities at several airports have they plan to introduce full-body scanners to try to reduce the risk of explosives being smuggled aboard aircraft.
Reuters