The Irish public will not be told the result of an enquiry into how explosives were carried on a domestic airliner flying from the Slovak Republic to Dublin earlier this year.
The explosives went undetected and were eventually recovered by Irish police at an address in Central Dublin.
The explosives were said to have been placed, unbeknown to a passenger, in his baggage as part of a security exercise at the Slovak airport of Poprad-Tatry. The man was unaware of their presence until Irish police swooped on his address.
The Celtic League wrote in January to the European Commission – European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) asking if they would be conducting an urgent enquiry into the issue. They responded fairly promptly to say that they would.
However, now that the enquiry has been concluded they say it will remain under wraps and members of the public will not receive an explanation for the extraordinary security breach.
EASA Air Transport – Aviation Security spokesperson, Eckard Seebohm, says in a letter to the Celtic League.
“EASA forwarded to us a letter you sent on 9 January 2010 inquiring on an incident at Poprad-Tatry airport in the Slovak Republic.
I can inform you that following the publication of the incident in the press the Commission requested and received a detailed report from the competent Slovak authorities clarifying the exact circumstances and including measures to improve procedures to avoid similar incidents in the future.
I would also like to inform you that the Commission carries out regular inspections in all Member States to ensure compliance with EU legislation. However, the Commission, for security reasons, can not disclose any information
relating to such inspections.”
The Celtic League are unimpressed by the response from EASA as it fails to indicate what breaches of criminal law were identified by the inquiry.
Related articles on Celtic News at:
https://groups.yahoo.com/group/celtic_league/message/3210
https://groups.yahoo.com/group/celtic_league/message/3270
J B Moffatt (Mr)
Director of Information
Celtic League
09/05/10