Saturday 15 April 2006

Change of plan

This must have been a bit scary:
A plane flying from Luton to Galway in the Republic of Ireland has been diverted to Prestwick, after a note was found claiming a bomb was on board.
Fortunately all turned out well:
The plane's 53 passengers and crew all disembarked safely. Police later confirmed the note was a hoax.

The passengers and crew were kept in the airport terminal while a bomb disposal unit searched the plane.

You may be wondering why I'm only now getting round to mentioning this story. Surely it happened a few days ago?

Not so: that was the earlier Prestwick bomb scare. It's the second time this week that a plane en route to Ireland was "escorted" into Prestwick by the RAF after the airline crew had found notes about bombs. But I note a subtle difference this time. The passengers on last night's flight were taken off the plane to enable it to be searched. Obvious procedure one would think. Not on Wednesday though:

Passengers criticised officials for forcing them to remain on the plane while it was searched row by row. It is claimed the Ryanair pilot, who feared for their safety, pleaded for their evacuation but was refused
What's going on here I wonder. Are Ryanair passengers typically more dangerous than those on Aer Arann? Or are people heading for Dublin less trustworthy than those going to Galway? Surely it can't be because the authorities on Wednesday were operating in their all-too-typical "screw the public, let's show who's boss mode" but by Friday were feeling the heat from angry airline pilots?

1 comment:

David Farrer said...

Comment made on previous template:

Stuart Dickson
Aer Lingus's Irish management have come up with a brilliant solution. The pilot carries a bomb and,as the law of averages indicates there is unlikely to be 2 bombers on the same plane,everyone is safe.

20 April 2006, 05:58:07 GMT+01:00